Farmers in Kalomo District, Southern have been urged to embrace the concept of climate smart agriculture owing to the prevailing ecological changes.
Kalomo District Commissioner, Joshua Sikaduli observes that farmers still can do better even in harsh climatic conditions if they strive hard to adapt to conservation farming practices being propagated by several stakeholders who have come on board to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Food security has been threatened by climate change for now, therefore, promoting conservation agriculture and embracing crop diversification through planting drought tolerant crops is the other way to be in line with the United Nations’ World Food Programme strategic goal to fight hunger and reduce it to Zero,” Sikaduli observes.
ZANIS reports that Mr. Sikaduli made the remarks when he officiated at a field day organized by the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) under the auspices of the World Food Programme (WFP) at Mr. Samuel Chuumpuka’s farm in Choonga ward over the Easter weekend.
The District Commissioner was also elated to learn that ADRA has given out farm mechanisation implements such as rippers to 60,000 farmers in the 32 agriculture camps of Kalomo, alongside providing them with over 40,000 air tight- Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, to prevent their agro produce from going to waste.
And ADRA Kalomo project coordinator, Norman Nguni has challenged farmers to seriously collaborate with the camp extension officers to learn the new concepts of its Early Drought Recovery project which is being implemented in the district.
Meanwhile, WFP says an electronic market system for some selected farm produce such as cow peas and soya beans is readily available and urged them to take up the initiative of pooling up their produce together and source for buyers online who can buy the commodity at reasonable prices.
The field day which attracted several farmers from different agriculture camps in the district was conducted under the theme ‘Growing of drought tolerant crops and practicing conservation farming for increased yields, food security, nutrition and profitability in times of climate change.’
MOST ZAMBIANS ARE IGNORANT REGARDING CLIMATE CHANGE
IT NEEDS EDUCATION EDUCATION !!
OUR NEIGHBOUR BOTSWANA HAS JUST HAD SNOW FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER
BUT LT PREFERS TO HIGHLIGHT A HUT BURNING DOWN SOMEWHERE ??
The biggest hindrance to conservation farming are agro marketing companies. They’re now like a Mafia because of the business. Now herbicides have been added to the FISP package. These will further destroy the soils. Today farmers have been made to believe that they can’t do without fertilizer. In the 70s we used to grow our crops without any fertilizer and we used to record good yields. If farmers can realize how much they’ll save if they switch to conservation farming then they’ll never rely on fertilizers and herbicides. Therefore, Government must the lead by changing the policy. It must also provide more extension services to provide farmers with the required info and guidance by its officers. Can you imagine how much we’ll save in the long term? Conservation farming is the way to…
So the country’s farmers must now solve the climate issues. While government does NOTHING. They can’t even introduce a ban on charcoal production – which is of course responsible for the ongoing deforestation, by far the biggest climate issue on the continent!
And I agree with #2 Ayatollah, vast sums go into buying fertilizer while farmers are much better off with making and using a compost heap – free and infinitely better for the soil.