Zomba farmers drilled in climate smart agriculture

Zomba district agriculture extension officer Christina Chidaya has urged farmers to adopt climate smart agriculture technolgies.

She said this at Chingale on Tuesday during the graduation of farmers from 16 farmer field schools who completed studies in climate smart agriculture course under the Malawi Watershed Improvement Project (Mwasip).

Chidaya said farmers go to field schools to learn how to address problems such as soil infertility.

“At the end of the course, they evaluate crops that can adapt to soils in their areas,” she said.

Chingale Extension Plannning Area extension worker and farmer field school trainer Limbani Thangata said besides sustainable land management skills, farmers also learned agribusiness to help them make profit from their farming.

“We should remember that the future belongs to agribusiness. We shall be accountable to anything if we fail to equip small-scale farmers with relevant smart agriculture skills,” he said.

Chisomo Farmer Field School graduate Eneless Bonomali said she acquired skills on how to improve degraded gardens.

Sub-Traditional Authority Nkapita asked people to utilise the skills to improve crop production.

Mwasip is being implemented in Neno, Blantyre, Zomba, Machinga, Ntcheu, Balaka and Mangochi districts with support from the World Bank.