Posted on March, 12, 2019 at 11:41 am
By Yankho Phiri
Kasungu — Farmers in Group Village Headman (GVH) Gogode in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Kaomba in Kasungu have commended pit planting method saying it has boosted crop production in the area.
Through the method, farmers dig planting stations and fill them with compost manure or animal dung before the rains in order to add fertility in designated planting stations.
One of the lead farmers in the area, Pitilizani Banda said in an interview on Friday that the dug stations conserve water, making the method appropriate especially in the face of climate change which is bringing about annual incidences of dry spells.
"Since we started planting our maize using this method, our harvests have increased. We always receive insufficient rainfall but through this way, crop stations manage to hold water and keep the soils moisturized for a long time", he said.
Banda added that adding of manure before planting helps them to spend less on buying fertilizer.
"Applying manure before planting helps us cut costs of buying fertilizer as we only use one type of fertilizer which is urea," he said.
Chairperson for Kasungu District Agriculture Extension Committee (DAEC), Chisomo Mbembeza hailed Find Your Feet (FYF) organization for imparting the method to farmers in the area.
FYF, through District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), organized a field visit in the area to showcase some of the activities it is implementing in the area through their project called Malawi Mozambique Sustainable Agricultural (MAMO) with funding from Norwegian Embassy.
Source: Malawi News Agency (MANA Online)