NGO intensifies manure production in Mzimba
Empower Community Development Initiative (Ecodi), a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in Mzimba, has initiated an organic manure making project to help smallholder farmers in the district to realise more farm produce.
The project, which targets vulnerable women farmers, is being implemented in Milala, in Traditional Authority (T/A) M’mbelwa in the district.
In an interview on Wednesday, after a field visit on how women are responding to the skills imparted to them, Ecodi executive director Elias Nyirenda said the project, will, among others, help farmers become resilient to climate change hazards.
“We want to reach women who are vulnerable to climate change hazards and cannot buy fertiliser on how they can produce own organic manure from locally available resources,” he said.
He encouraged farmers to adapt the technology because organic manure has the potential to bring back the lost nutrients in the soil, thereby increasing harvest to become food secure and sell the surplus.
Mtima Umoza Women Group chairperson Enelless Banda expressed optimism that farming will be cheaper compared to the past, when they relied on chemical fertilisers.
“We have been failing to harvest enough because fertiliser is costly; but, with the lessons we have acquired on organic manure making, I am sure our farm produce will increase, even during dry spells,” she said.