A non-governmental organisation, Point of Progress, recently trained extension workers from Phalombe and Mulanje district to enable them build capacity of small holder farmers on agribusiness related to climate smart agriculture.
The training took place at Luchenza where Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) for Mulanje District, Godfrey Kayira, said there was need for smallholder farmers to focus on growing commercial crops for value addition after harvest.
Kayira made the remarks during the three days training session which was meant to build capacity of agriculture extension workers on climate-smart agriculture practices.
He said promoting value addition among smallholder farmers would help increase household income, apart from improving food security in the face of climate change.
‘‘Local farmers should take agriculture as business rather than subsistence activity. Adopting modern farming techniques and investing in market-oriented crops would enhance profitability,’’ he added.
He further encouraged the extension workers to transfer knowledge gained from the training to farmers at grassroots level to ensure wider adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies.
Point of Progress Project Manager, Chancy Mkandawire, said the training was designed to capacitate extension workers by strengthening their technical knowledge, facilitation skills and practical understanding of the project interventions.
“The training was meant to enable the extension workers to effectively serve as trainers of trainers, ensuring that knowledge and best practices are transferred to farmers and other stakeholders at community level,” he said.
The training was held under Girls Get Equal 2.0 project, with support from NORAD through Plan International Malawi.