Karonga farmers asked to embrace climate smart agriculture

Farmers in Karonga have been called on to embrace climate smart agriculture technologies to boost yields and counter effects of climate change amid prolonged dry spells that have hit the district.

Karonga Argricultural Development Division (ADD) Chief Land Resource Conservation Officer Kufasi Shela made the call during a media tour that the ADD organized to appreciate the impacts of the dry spells in the Extension Planning Areas (EPA) of Mpata, Nyungwe and Vinthukutu.

She observed that adopting conservation practices such as manure making and pit planting can help to ensure the effects of dry spells are minimized.

“Farming is a business and an investment that requires one to be innovative hence its vital that all farmers should engage in these climate smart agriculture technologies especially during these times of the changing climate as we have experienced with the prolonged dry spells,” she said.

Shela further pointed out that land management technologies such as contour and aligned ridges, use of khola, mbeya and bokashi manure and soil and water conservation are some of the technologies that they are encouraging farmers to get behind in the district.

Nyungwe EPA Agricultural Extension Development Coordinator, Florence Nthara, advised farmers to plant early on the onset of the first rains saying doing so is crucial to the survival of crops even during the time of dry spells.

Sarif Kalikuzi a lead farmer from Mtekela village in the area of Traditional Authority Wasambo, said through conservation farming and pit planting will likely lead to him having a good harvest despite the dry spells.

“Practicing conservation agriculture for the past five years has really transformed my household’s food security through the bumper yields I’ve been getting hence urge fellow farmers to embrace the technology,” he explained.