Category: News

The Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) has urged the public to make good use of urban waste by turning them into compost manure for agricultural use.

Through a project “promoting organic systems of soil improvement to build a resting economy possible project”, CEPA is working with 1000 smallholder farmers in Lilongwe and Blantyre City councils on how they can make thermophilic compost manure using the urban waste as a way of addressing both environmental and agricultural challenges.

According to project coordinator, Tamala Makata, they developed the project to take part in addressing the challenges of soil degradation in the country by improving soil health through the use of compost manure.

“You might wish to agree with me that almost 80% of the waste that is generated in the urban cities is organic. We took advantage of that to make sure that we are turning this urban organic waste into compost that can be used for crop productivity but also to restore the soils in Malawi,” said Makata.

Makata cited that, the 3-year project has received tremendous support by both local farmers and the two city councils as it is cost effective to farmers and a game changer as far as keeping the cities clean is concerned.

She also mentioned that the project intends to ensure that people are having improved food harvest and improved soil fertility as well as farmers benefiting from the compost manure sells.

“So, we are basically looking at a situation where the soils can be able to support crop but also the smallholder farmers are able to benefit from the interventions, but also have enough food throughout the year,” she added.

Gospel for All Compost Manure manager from Traditional Authority Njewa in Lilongwe, Korrinto Saddon praised the significant outcome of the compost manure since they started using in their respective farms.

“Compost manure is very important to our health because it has no chemicals that are hazardous to our soils, it acts as a vaccine to our soils because in compost manure they’re some microorganisms which stay active for about 5 to 7 years, so it’s very important for our soil health and plant nutrition,” said Saddon.

“The government should bring awareness to farmers on the importance of compost manure, and the government should also be working to promote soil health and plant nutrition,” he added.

The use of compost manure is said to be crucial in restoring the country’s soil fertility especially at the time Malawi is experiencing economic hardships and the impacts of climate change

By Lester Mhone

The Vice President and Country Director of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Dr. Candida Nakhumwa says farmers across the country (Malawi) are responding well in-terms of diversifying from relying on Tobacco only as a cash crop to other alternative value chains.

Dr. Nakhumwa made the remarks on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at NRC – CAT Smart Farm during a farmer field day which was organized by the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) under the theme “Smallholder Farmers Crop Diversification Key for Mitigating Climate Change Shocks.”

Dr. Nakhumwa says they are overwhelmed with the response from farmers after they started working with CAT (five years ago), having seen a lot of farmers diversifying to other alternative crops like Soyabeans, Groundnuts, Cassava just to mention a few.

“You know, farmers are rational human beings. They can see the changes that are happening out there. They know that the market for tobacco is affected. They know that climate is changing. And all they need is a little bit of support in terms of knowledge, but also information as to what is it that we can do. And through the CAT, we are excited to answer your question that there’s a lot of change that we’ve seen that farmers are actually adopting. Behind me, you can see that there is a banana crop, a very good banana crop. In the past, people used to think you can only grow bananas, maybe along (districts of) Thyolo, Mulanje, or Nkhatabay in the Northern Region (of Malawi). But now it’s exciting to see farmers in Central Region growing bananas,” Dr. Nakhumwa explained.

She added by commending CAT for promoting both improved productivity, value addition as well as linking farmers to readily available markets.

“Farmers will always want to ask, if I grow bananas, for example, do I have a readily available market for this? And we want them to be introduced to those markets. And in doing that, they are encouraged to actually diversify. Farmers want to be assured that there is a readily available market for what they are producing. So, the response has been very good, and I’m happy that that’s also in line with what, you know, we’ve stipulated on our own in Malawi 2063,” She added.

The Smoke Free World Vice President and Country director expressed her optimism that crop diversification is also a key to mitigating the impact of climate change.

In his remarks, CAT Executive Director, Macleod Nkhoma re-affirmed their continued commitment in ensuring that farmers are equipped with new technologies that will help them increase production, as well as start earning profits through farming business.

Among others, Nkhoma thanked the Foundation for a Smoke Free World through the Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI) for their continued support towards the program’s, CAT is undertaking in the country.

The Farmer Field Day brought together various lead farmers across the country, government officials as well as private partners to appreciate different technologies available at NRC – CAT smart farm.

By Lester Mhone

Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute has on 22 April 2024 hosted the launch of communication strategy in the country as one of the countries under Don Bosco Tech-Africa.

Speaking at the event, the superior for the Salesians of Don Bosco in Zambia and Malawi, Father Michael Mbandama outlined the importance of the communication strategy to the youths and the citizenry.

In his words, Fr. Mbandama indicated how the youths will benefit from the strategy and also how Don Bosco youth Technical Institute empowers the youths with wisdom and knowledge on how best they can live their life.

He further explained how the communication strategy will help their school as it is a tool that will create a way on how they can communicate with their beneficiary.

“It is in this that we communicate what we do, in this that we want to set up a kind of a pattern on how we are going to defuse information and it is in this that will are going to catch those that we inform and it is in this also that we are going to penetrate our stakeholders especially the industry and it is in this that we are going to bring alot of those young people who are poor into our system so that we also empower them as we have done in the past,” explained Fr Michael.

Don Bosco Tech Africa includes all 24 technical institutions under Don Bosco in Africa and Madagascar and over 2000 students have patronized Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute in the country.

by Tiyamike Paul Chisale

Bungwe la Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) lapempha alimi m’dziko muno kuyamba kubzala mbeu ya maungu akuluakulu (Giant Pumpkins) ndi cholinga chofuna kuchepetsa njala yomwe imakuta dziko lino chaka ndi chaka.

Izi zayankhulidwa lachisanu pa 16 February 2024 pamwambo wachionetsero cha mbewu ya mawunguyi, yomwe ikutchedwa NRC Giant Pumpkin, yomwe inalimidwa miyezi ingapo yapitayi ku munda wachitsanzo wabungweli ku NRC m’boma la Lilongwe.

M’modzi mwa akuluakulu a bungwe la CAT, Mayi Lizzie Kachulu ati mawunguwa athandiza alimi kukhala odzidalira pa chakudya komanso chuma.

Iwo ati kucha msanga kwa mbewuyi ndikothandiza anthu ambiri maka m’miyezi yomwe njala imavuta ya Janyuwale komanso February.

“Mawungu amenewa ndi osiyana ndi amene alimi amabzala, awawa ali ndi dzina loti Giant Pumpkins (Mawungu akuluakulu). Alimi akakhala kuti asamala bwino, ayika manyowa okwanira amalemera kuyambira ma kilogalamu atatu mpaka 30. Ndipo chimene timafuna kuti alimi adzaone ndi choti atati alimi apatsidwa mbeu iyiyi, mabanja awo atha kukapindula,” anatero a Kachulu.

M’mawu ake, m’modzi mwa akadaulo pankhani za ulimi ku sukulu ya ukachenjede ya NRC, Shaibu Kananji ati mbewuyi ili ndi kuthekera kothandiza alimi kupeza phindu lochuluka pa ulimi wawo.

Iwo anatsindikanso kunena kuti mbewuyi sinapangidwe kuti idzalowe mmalo mwa mbewu ya mawungu yomwe ilipo kale koma kuti ithandize alimi kukhala ndi chakudya chokwanira.

“Cholinga kwenikweni ndi chonena kuti, chifukwa choti mawungu awawa amabereka mwansanga ndi ambiri (akuluakulu komanso olemera), mlimi atha kupindula kwambiri. Mlimi atha kusankha kuti akabzale mawungu a local aja mmene amadzalira, koma awawa akabzaleso pamalo pomwe sipafuna pakhaleso chimanga ayi,” anatero a Kananji.

Poyankhulapo pambuyo pachiwonetselochi, mfumu yaikulu Mazilo 2 yayamikira mbewuyi ponena kuti iwombola anthu ochuluka omwe amakumana ndi njala chaka ndi chaka.

“Mawungu amenewa ndi osiyana ndi amene timakumana nawo makukamu (ana akwanire), awawa ndi mawungu oti nyumba anthu akaphika kaya muli anthu 10, dzungu limodzi litha kuwaombola onsewo,” anamaliza motero a mfumu Mazilo 2.

Bungwe la CAT likugwira ntchito ndi magulu osiyanasiyana pantchito yopititsa patsogolo ulimi pogwilitsa ntchito njira zamakono pofuna kuti mzika za dziko lino zisiye kudalira mtundu umodzi wa mbewu.

Wolemba: Eric Norman Mkwaira