Farmers urged to stop relying on rain fed agriculture

Machinga Agricultural Development Division (ADD) says it is encouraging farmers under the division to stop relying on rain fed agriculture and begin prioritising irrigation agriculture.

Chief Agriculture Extension Officer in Machinga Allan Kaliwo said as an Agricultural Development Division they are telling farmers to practice conservation agriculture and irrigation farming.

Kaliwo was speaking on the sidelines of a three day training for Environmental journalists taking place at Masongola Hotel under the theme strengthening community resilience to climate change. He said such trainings for journalists are important as farmers rely on the media practitioners to disseminate issues of climate change.

“Trainings such as these are important as journalists are enlightened on issues of climate change and would be able to share it with people out there,” said Kaliwo.

President for the Association of Environmental Journalists (AEJ) Mathews Malata said environmental journalists are doing a good job in reporting climate change issues but the information is not being used.

“We are doing a good job as environmental journalists in disseminating climate change issues but the major challenge is the information is not being used,” said Malata.

He added that there is need for people and other stakeholders as well as other organisations to do more on the implementation of issues to do with climate change.

According to Malata, there is also a big challenge of resources in terms of disseminating climate change issues but as AEJ they will continue to partner with those who have resources to continue disseminating climate change information.

Malata further expressed the need to equip journalists with climatic information and he thanked European Union who funded the training through Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).