Farmers in Mchinji have been advised to embrace irrigation farming to attain food security.
Churches Action in Relief and Development project assistant Jonathan Mateketa said this at Sitoko Village, Traditional Authority Simphasi in Mchinji during a tour to appreciate irrigation activities taking place in the area.
He said irrigation farming enables people to plant more than once unlike when they rely on rain-fed agriculture.
“With climate change, rains are mostly unpredictable, as such, one can supplement that with irrigation farming,” said the project assistant.
Mateketa said that last year’s season was disaster in the area as people planted late due to late arrival of rains.
“Many people survived because of irrigation farming whose yield is more than one would get with rain farming,” he said.
One of the farmers that practise irrigation farming, Nastazio Nkhata, said his family is comfortable with irrigation farming.
“I was experiencing food shortage in my house. But after learning about irrigation farming, I not only have enough to eat, but also to sell,” he said.
Nkhata said with the financial benefit of irrigation farming, he moved his son from a community day secondary school to a private school.
Asked on the role of his organisation, Mateketa said it provided irrigation pumps as well as training for farmers on how to operate the farms and do irrigation farming.
With funding from Bread for the World, the organisation is implementing a project called Promoting Agro-Ecology Transition for Enhancing Resilient Agriculture in Malawi in Mchinji, Dowa, Mulanje and Nsanje districts.
