An international non-governmental organization (NGO) has underscored the need to impart knowledge to farmers to embrace farming as business as one way of diversifying income generation.
Disaster officer for Danish Church Aid (DCA) Lewis Karenda said lack of knowledge among smallholder farmers has held back farmers hence they do not know the benefit of taking up their farming as business.
He said due to the knowledge gap that exists, unscrupulous traders have taken advantage of the farmers by purchasing their yields at cheaper prices hence farmers have been earning little from their hard work.
“As you know Malawi’s economy relies on agriculture, so it’s important that smallholder farmers are imparted with knowledge on how they can treat farming as business because that is the one way of boosting their income,” he said.
Karenda said this when closing a three day ‘Ulimi ndi Business’ workshop for ten lead farmers’ representatives from Karonga and Chitipa districts.
The workshop which was organized by Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) with financial assistance from the Danish Church Aid among others was aimed at equipping farmers on farming business skills and on how to secure markets for their livestock.
