EARLY MATURING CROPS KEY TO HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY

 

80 years, but still strong carrying out farming activities to feed his family, Mr Kaipanzeru Kanthole vividly remembers that even though households that consider cassava as their staple food were encouraged by extension workers to intercrop with maize for diversity, they were reluctant to do so. As a result, most farming families in Chiboko village have struggled to be food secure for years due to late maturing Cassava varieties commonly grown.

“I have relied on Cassava to feed my family for many years, our generation has been christened that Cassava is our main food,” he says.

Kanthole is a chief of Chiboko Village, Traditional Authority Mphonde in Nkhotakota District. He is one of the many farmers in the district who have learned about the improved crop varieties by doing demonstrations. He received a small pack of 600grams of MH36 (Manthu) an improved maize variety that is being multiplied and distributed by Multi Seeds Company Limited (MUSECO) through a network of agro-dealers across the country.

 Hey says, “At first I was reluctant when the Community Agribusiness Agent approached me to be one of the farmers to try the improved maize variety, because it was late in December and I had already planted. I was afraid I will waste my energy and time without yield.”  

Kanthole says he was compelled to still carry out the baby demo to try the maize variety as this was the only sure way for him to explore other maize varieties that can do better in his area.

He is one of the many farmers in the district who have benefited from the project Strengthening Seed and Other Farm Inputs Distribution Systems for Improved Food Security and Incomes of Smallholder Farmers implemented by Rural Market Development Trust (RUMARK) with support from Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

“We were told this was an early maturing variety, I was excited to try it because the Extension worker, Mr. Thomas Ng’oma told us during training of demonstrations that the new varieties will improve food and nutrition security at our household,” the words of Kanthole.

According to Kanthole, many farmers in Nkhotakota are used to Cassava as their main food crop and a source of income for others. However he says this crop doesn’t mature early hence farming families face acute shortage of food every year which also increases cases of malnutrition in the district. He says these trials came at the right for him as he had been thinking of ways of diversifying food and income sources. Thanks to this project as Kanthole now is going to grow early maturing maize crops to beat hunger and improve food and nutrition security for his family.

“Cassava is a late maturing crop, while this MH36 is early maturing. In just three months after planting, the crop was ready for harvesting which means this crop will save me and my family from hunger. So this is a much better alternative to Cassava as a main food crop. As a village chief, I will use my position to influence people in my village to start growing these early maturing maize varieties” He says.

Thomas Ng’oma is the Government extension worker in the area. He says farmers received high quality improved seed varieties such as Maize (MH36, P2809), Soya (Tikolore), and Groundnuts from Rural Market Development Trust (RUMARK) to conduct baby and mother demonstration to try the varieties. His role was to train farmers and conduct periodic inspections to the demo-fields to provide information on good agriculture practices, and to ensure that the demonstrations were successful.

 Ng’oma said within a space of three months, all the crops reached harvesting stage, this means that, if farmers are encouraged to adopt and start planting early maturing crops, cases of hunger will be reduced, a development which will subsequently contain escalating cases of malnutrition in the district.

“Climate change is a huge threat to farming these days, farmers need to be encouraged to adopt new varieties which are early maturing. We had been conducting field days to raise awareness and promote these early maturing maize varieties. Many farmers have shown interest to start growing in the next farming season, hence we call on Seed companies that supplied these seeds to increase production and distribute the seeds in time through agro-dealers so that farmers can access it” He said.

Access to information and where to buy quality seeds is a challenge for rural farmers in Malawi. With financial support from Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, RUMARK is addressing the challenge by strengthening the country’s Agro-dealer network to improve access to high quality seed of improved crop varieties in the country identified by Sustainable Agricultural Production Program (SAPP) implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture with support from IFAD.