Smallholder farmers in Traditional Authority (T/A) M’mbelwa in Mzimba District have adopted mechanised farming to boost their chances of practising commercial agriculture.
The farmer s , under Tombolombo Cooperative, were drilled by Total Land Care in agriculture commercialisation, mechanisation and value addition under the Sustainable Food Systems for Rural Agriculture Transformation and Resilience (Transform) programme.
On Saturday, Norwegian Church Aid and DanChurchAid, who were implementing Transform Programme in the district, visited the farmers in Manyamula zone to appreciate the impact of the project which rolled out in 2020.
I Elton Mhango
The cooperative’s secretary Isaiah Mlenje said Total Land Care facilitated their registration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
“Later in 2023, under the technical guidance of Transform programme, we wrote a proposal to the World Bank-funded Agricultural Commercialisation [Agcom] programme and we got a grant of a tractor in 2024,” he said.
Mlenje said the tractor has boosted crop production as they are now cultivating on a large scale.
“We now have a 10-hectare farm where we grow soya
beans, groundnuts and maize. Last year, we realised K8 million in profits by selling soya beans to primary schools for their feeding programmes,” he said.
One of the cooperative’s members, Loveness Nkhata, said individual members also use the tractor to till their gardens.
“We also lend it to other farmers to boost our revenue,” she said.
Total Land Care field officer Black Kamwaza said they trained the farmers in modern farming practices, how to minimise post-harvest losses, contract farming and how to market their products by attending agriculture fairs.
“As the programme is phasing out this year, we can only believe that the farmers will continue to take care of the machines they acquired under the programme,” he said.
Transform project was running with support from Royal Norwegian Embassy in Mzimba, Rumphi, Dowa, Kasungu and Mchinji.
