By Richard Kagunda

Kasungu, October 10, Mana: Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Yusuf Mkungula has appealed to people in Kasungu and Mzimba districts to take ownership of the Climate Resilience In Malawi (CRIM) project in order for them to fully benefit from it.

Mkungula said this on Wednesday when he presided over the launch of the second phase of the CRIM project at Chimaliro Primary School ground in the area of Senior Chief Kaluluma in Kasungu district.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change in conjunction with the United Nations Development Project has launched the second phase of the CRIM project with funding from Flanders government to assist people fighting climate change.

"We urge people to develop a feeling of ownership towards the project and take full responsibility because they are the ones to benefit from it.

"The project is very important to the people and to us as a ministry since it is contributing to our strategies and objectives in conserving and managing natural resources in the country and management of climate change in general," Mkungula said.

Mkungula applauded the Flanders government for funding the project and expressed gratitude to the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) for being a good development partner for Malawi.

He expressed optimism that the second phase of the project will bring about a greater impact.

UNDP Resident Representative in Malawi, Fenella Frost, said besides capacitating communities in resilience against climate change, the second phase of the project will also focus on promoting local entrepreneurship by assisting farmers to have access to markets.

"During the first phase of the project, people managed to cultivate crops using irrigation, constructed ponds for fishery and their products are of good quality. However, it has been a challenge to find markets. That is why we are now geared to deal with this problem in the second phase of the project," Frost said.

Member of Parliament for Kasungu North, Mike Bango, said the first phase of the CRIM project has been beneficial to people in his area especially farmers and he urged the them to utilize the second phase of the project to eradicate hunger in their households.

"There are numerous benefits that the first phase of the project brought about. We have seen people embarking on irrigation agriculture, fishery and more but I still urge them to do more," Bango said.

Flanders government has pumped in 2.5 million Euros for the second phase of the CRIM project.