By Joel Phiri

Mzimba, November 12, Mana:  Subsistence farmers in Traditional Authority (TA) Kampingo Sibande in Mzimba district have expressed prospects of better harvests in the 2024/2025 farming season due to climate-smart interventions they have adopted in their gardens.

The farmers say climate smart works under the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CSEPWP) have turned their once barren lands into fertile ones.

Speaking Monday during a tour of Thundwe Catchment Area which falls under Kazomba Extension Area (EPA), Melinet Mseteka, from Mukomakuka Village said last year she managed to cultivate one acre where she applied climate-smart technologies.

“I managed to harvest substantial amount of maize. These climate-smart interventions helped me, unlike in the past when I could not harvest the 40 bags that I managed this time,” said Mseteka, who is also the treasurer for the catchment.

According to Agriculture Extension worker for Thundwe Catchment, Harvey Nyirongo, most farmers have benefitted from their participation in climate-smart interventions.

“We have model farms where we practise these climate-smart interventions and most farmers have also embraced them and introduced them in their farms. It would appear most of them have seen the importance of having them in their gardens as they tout them very much,” said Nyirongo.

CSEPWP in Thundwe Catchment is benefiting over 1,200 people who are enrolled on it.

Mseteka said before she was enrolled on the programme she used to grapple with a lack of nutrients as her farmland was barren due to soil erosion.

“But having enrolled on the programme, we have learnt how swale construction helps hold water thereby reducing the speed of water. This makes the water infiltrate and helps in moisture retention. I have also planted vetiver grass which has helped add nutrients and because of this I hope for the better in the 2024/2025 farming season,” she said.

According to Mzimba Senior Land Resource Officer and Desk Officer for the Enhanced Climate Smart programme, Olive Nyalira, most farmers in various catchments have come to embrace the programme after realising that natural ways of managing their farms are better off.

“This is why most have adopted the technologies in their farms. They know with the high cost of chemical fertiliser it's cheaper to adopt these climate-smart technologies in preserving their gardens,” she said.

Nyalira also said the programme is trying to manage some deep gullies that heavy rains in the past created which if left unchecked could lead to loss of farming land.

“Here at Thundwe we have one which the communities are managing. They planted trees around it and they have also dug swales to ensure it no longer continues widening and posing threat to the communities’’, said Nyalira.

CSEPWP is funded by the World Bank and other donors under the multi-donor trust fund.