Mulanje farmers tipped on winter cropping
World Vision Malawi (WVM) has encouraged farmers in Mulanje to take up winter cropping to ensure food security at household level.
WVM food security and resilience coordinator (South) Crenodia Chigamba said this on Thursday when she toured irrigation projects under their Njema Area Programme in the district.
fertiliser from Chigamba
She said Malawians are too dependent on rain-fed agriculture, which limits farmers to only one harvest a year.
“As an organisation, we are supporting them with extension services so that they know how to carry out the winter cropping and irrigation systems,” Chigamba said.
Patrick Tikhiwa, a beneficiary of this project, said the coming in of WVM has benefitted him and other farmers more from the schemes.
“Before World Vision came, we would just farm anyhow, not knowing proper ways of doing it. Right now, I can say we have enough food in our homes. We no longer face hunger and we have money which we are able to use for other things to better our livelihoods,” said Tikhiwa.
The Food Security and Resilience Programme in Njema, which runs from 2013 to 2024, will see WVM spending close to K40 million this year alone. Through it, farmers will get maize seed, vegetable seeds, potatoes and fertiliser. n
