By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, December 12, Mana: Food for Life Assistant Coordinator Gloria Chirwa has urged farmers in Kasungu to adopt climate-smart agriculture in order to remain resilient amidst climate change shocks.

Chirwa was speaking on Monday during an engagement between the charity organisation and its beneficiary farmers at Bango Village in Traditional Authority Kaluluma in the district.

She said there is plenty of evidence about climate change affecting agricultural productivity hence the need for farmers to turn to modern agriculture methods to make their homes food secure.

She said: “It’s two-fold; firstly, we are looking at the rainfall pattern nowadays. We need to adopt farming techniques that help to retain moisture in the soil to avoid the wilting of crops. Secondly, we are concerned that fertiliser is expensive.

“So we are teaching farmers on how to make compost manure which is not only cheap but also helps to restore fertility in the soil which in turn helps to retain moisture. At the same time we want them to plant in beds and not in ridges for the same reason of retaining moisture.”

According to Chirwa, since the organisation started working with farmers in the area in 2012, many households have reduced their dependency on non-organic fertilisers opting to make their own manure.

Apart from seeds, Food for Life also procures and distributes animal manure to farmers which they mix with tree leaves to make large volumes of compost manure.    

“We encourage them to work on small plots which they can ably manage. From that, they are able to harvest no less than 14 bags of maize. And from that, they only remit one bag to the organisation.

“It is encouraging that many households have joined this initiative such that we are currently working with about 2,000 farmers and we expect more to join,” Chirwa said.

Group Village Head Bango said the initiative has helped the community to harvest more produce on small plots and make their families food secure.

“With our traditional farming, we used to have big plots which we could not properly attend to in terms of both fertiliser application and labour requirements.

“This time, our story is different because most families now have food. We concentrate our efforts on small plots but harvest more because we plant in beds and use compost manure,” he said.

Bango said many families have shown interest to join the initiative which he described as cheap yet beneficial.