Over 1 Million Benefit from CCARDESA's Improved Agricultural Technologies

By: Steve Chirombo

A total of 1,427,622 beneficiaries across Malawi benefited from the six years Agriculture Productivity Program for Southern Africa (APPSA), a Centre for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) programme representing 58.61 per cent. According to a November 2019 end of project report on Dissemination Strategies for Promoting released technologies among smallholder farmers in Malawi, the project also achieved a target of 237,937 farmers out of 405,947 representing 58.61 per cent.

The report from the Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) further said limited access to knowledge and information on the released technologies negatively affected agricultural productivity. "Maize, Rice and legumes remain the most important crops in Malawi. However, there is a need to continue the use of improved agricultural technologies and practices by smallholder farmers in order to increase agricultural productivity and production," indicated the report. It further said the use of improved agricultural technologies and practices play a key role in increasing agricultural productivity.

"The project aimed at increasing adoption of released technologies for maize, rice and food legumes. It also helped to popularize released technologies among stakeholder farmers to facilitate improved productivity and production of maize, rice and food legumes among smallholder farmers through promotion of improved crop management practices and suitable varieties," it said

According to the report, the project managed to cover 20 administrative districts across Malawi's regions in some Extension Planning Areas (EPAs). Among the technologies include; Maize Pro-Vitamin A (MH43A), Groundnuts CG7, Beans-Kholophete; NUA 45, Soya Bean Tikolore, Makwacha, Cow Peas Sudan 1, Sorghum Pilira 1, Rice-Kayanjamalo and Pigeon Peas Chitedze 1 among many others. One of the project's dissemination partners, the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) based in Chikwawa district, indicated to have worked on sweet potato production in the 2017/2018 farming season. "We worked with 4, 396 farmers in Chikwawa and each one of them got 8kgs of sweet potato vines translating to 35,168kgs. We also taught them (farmers) how to plant through their own farm demonstrations," said Kumbukani Mhango in an interview on Friday

APPSA is a regional project supported by separate World Bank (WB). The project originally started with three countries namely; Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The six yearlong APPSA Project was launched in 2013 and officially closed in January 2020.

The author currently works as a Managing Editor at Shire Valley Online-SVO-News