Farmers asked to adopt indigenous farming methods
In a bid to fight high levels of malnutrition, an international non-governmental organisation working at Ekwendeni in Mzimba District has appealed to farmers to revert to indigenous methods of farming, touting them as cheap and easily attainable.
Innovations Technology Institutional and Extensional Approaches towards Agricultural Invests Africa (Innova) Country Manager, Lizzie Shumba, said during a field day at Kacheche recently that farmers should embrace local methods of farming to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
“When we were starting work in the year of 2000, malnutrition cases at Ekwendeni Hospital were high, as 33 percent of all cases we registered were due to malnutrition. We noticed that, in recent years, food production went down because farmers were experimenting with various farming technologies and pesticides, which have proven to be non-rewarding.
“But, nowadays, you can hardly find a child with malnutrition at the hospital unless they are HIV positive,” Shumba said.
However, Shumba raised concern over rising cases of stunted growth, describing them as “worrisome”.
One of the farmers in the area, Prince Ng’oma, said crop diversification has improved the food security situation in the area and also boosted people’s health.
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