NGO in 950 million food security project in Karonga

Cisp Malawi a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) has rolled out a Sustainable Malawian Agriculture to Enhance Resilience to Climate Change Project aimed at improving resilience of vulnerable households in Karonga amid adverse effects of Climate Change.

The K952 Million project which will run for three years will see about 2000 beneficiaries and the project is supported by Cisp a long side consortium partners including Save the Children, Umunthu Plus, Rice Development fund, Translate into Meaning and Community Blind Mission.

In an interview on Tuesday, after presenting the project to members of the Karonga District Executive Committee (DEC) Cisp District Coordinator Victor Nthakomwa, said in the face of Climate Change the project will focus on among others nutrition, digital marketing, and food and income security in order to build resilience of communities.

“Climate change has become the talk of the day as a result of the negative effects that has brought on the environment which mostly has been caused by human activities hence we will train beneficiaries to monitor weather patterns and adapt to sustainable agricultural techniques among other activities,” he said.

Nthakomwa further added the project will strengthen rice value chain by among others networking, finding linkages to markets and access to credits for rice corporative.

Reacting to the project Karonga District Chief Agriculture Officer Rita Makwakwa, pledged technical assistance to the successful implementation of the project.

“The project will not only go a long way in improving food security in the district however it will also help the beneficiaries generate income through rice production for their households which in the end will lead to improved nutrition status in the district,, she articulated.

Bernard Kalambo a rice farmer from Kakoma in the area of Traditional Authority Kilupula, commended the coming in of the project saying as rice farmers were struggling to find markets thereby selling their produce at a cheap price.