Kasungu District Council Agriculture Service Committee chairperson Bryson Phiri has urged farmers in the district to adopt new farming technologies to boost crop production.
He said many farmers were reluctant to adopt new technologies despite model farmers demonstrating their efficacy.
Phiri was speaking on Wednesday during a crop field day that students from Lisasadzi Rural Training College in Kasungu District organised.
He said: “Our extension workers do their best to demonstrate to farmers how best they can approach farming these days by emphasising the adoption of new technologies amid climate change.
. | Wanangwa Tembo, Mana
“But it is concerning that some farmers do not see the need to change. They are stuck with the traditional ways of doing things which have always failed to transform their lives.”
Phiri said farming is a combination of science and business, warning that ignoring any of the two components will be disastrous to farmers.
“We discourage the business-as-usual approach to farming. We must adjust to the changing realities to benefit from our investments and labour,” he said. The students organised the field day to showcase their intercropping field trials under the science and technology backyard strategy introduced by their university.
One of the students, Sylvester Panyani, emphasised the importance of agricultural research in achieving security at household levels.
He said: “We have to learn from countries that are doing well in agriculture regarding maximising yield and China is one of those countries.
“But before we implement what we learn from there, we need to experiment with those approaches to see which ones can work in the Malawian context.”
Kasungu Agricultural Development Division programmes manager Yusuf Shaibu asked the students to share the results of their research with agricultural authorities.
