Kalomo District Commissioner, Joshua Sikaduli has urged small scale farmers in the area to adopt smart agriculture farming methods owing to the prevailing climate change situation.
ZANIS reports that in a speech read on his behalf by his administrative officer, Doreen Hadunka at a field day organized by Self Help Africa, Mr Sikaduli stressed that crop diversification in times like this is paramount to attain food security at household level.
Mr Sikaduli says the farming community should seriously take new techniques such as conservation farming given to them by their respective agriculture extension officers.
“This drought that has hit us this year should be a lesson for farmers to heed to crop diversification practices by planting drought tolerant crops such as millet, sorghum, cowpeas and other legumes so that if our maize fields completely fail, there is alternative for food stocks for our homes,” Mr Sikaduli advised.
Mr Sikaduli notes that time to change farming practices is now looking at how fields have been damaged by the drought which even called for the Head of state to declare the situation as a national disaster.
“Let us diversify, do conservation farming so that in the event of another drought, at least we can harvest a little from some of the drought resistant crops we plant Mr Sikaduli.
And Self Helf Africa Project Manager, Decision Mweemba says some farmers in the programmes’ catchment area has adopted climate smart agriculture practices.
Meanwhile, host lead farmer, Albert Mandevu thanked Self Help Africa for coming up with alternative farming methods fot the small-scale farmers which he says has even enabled them to be a cowpea seed grower.
Mr. Mandevu and other farmers in the area have since decided to form a seed growers association in Kasikili area.
Self Help Africa is implementing a five-year project, called Drought Resilience to Overcome Poverty Project (DROPP) in Kalomo and Gwembe Districts of Southern province.
The project, which is in its second year, is operating in Kanchele, Kasikili, Nameto , Omba, Bbilili and Nantale agriculture camps in Kalomo.
The project is targeting 1,500 farmers in both Kalomo and Gwembe districts of Southern province. It is a continuation of the 2022 phased out Early Drought Recovery Project which was implemented in the two sites.
And, the Irish Aid Funded Project aims at increasing the uptake of climate smart agriculture to ensure food security at household level and link farmers to favorable markets alongside promotion of natural resources management among the targeted vulnerable households in the two districts.
