By Richard Kagunda

Kasungu, October 23, Mana: Chairperson for Kasungu District Council, Mwambilaso Mbedza has hailed Kasungu Agriculture Coordination Project (KACP) for promoting food security and equipping people in the rural areas with modern agricultural skills.

Funded by the Flanders Government to the tune of 450 000 Euros, the KACP which started in 2018 aimed at equipping farmers in the district with knowledge so that they remain resilient in the face of climate change.

Speaking when she presided over a ceremony marking the end of the first phase of the project on Tuesday at Kalolo in the area of Senior Chief Lukwa in Kasungu district, Mbedza advised the farmers to sustain the activities learned under the project to make their homes food secure and harvest enough for commercial purposes.

“We will live to cherish this project and it is our desire that the activities under the initiative are sustained so that we remain resilient to climatic shocks that are hitting us hard.

“Let me applaud the Flanders Government for supporting us in this manner and we can only pay them back by building on the skills learned in order to have adequate food in our household which was the main aim of this project,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Mbedza inspected some of the agricultural works done under the project which was being implemented in eight model villages in the district.

Apart from building capacity for farmers on modern farming approaches, the project also provide the farming household with livestock such as goats, pigeons and chicken and constructed a solar powered irrigation scheme.

The council’s chairperson for Agriculture Service Committee, Bryson Zephaniah said KACP has complemented government efforts in boosting agricultural productivity which is one of the anchor pillars to achieving the Malawi 2063 vision.

In his remarks, Group Village Head Kalolo expressed excitement for the progress that the project has brought in his area.

"We did not have adequate food because our approach to farming was not aligned with the changing climatic patterns.

“This time, things have changed because we are cultivating maize in our scheme even during the dry season using irrigation techniques that we learned and we also keep livestock,” Kalolo said.

In this ending phase, the project has distributed 1 850 livestock to 280 farming households and installed solar power in six of the district Extension and Planning Areas (EPAs) and connected all the EPA offices to internet.