A Mzuzu based organization, Empowerment of Youth on Economy and Development (EYED), is encouraging youth to take up farming and use modern farming methods to fight unemployment.
Executive Director of EYED Mzondi Mkandawire told Malawi24 that they have over 100 members and are aiming high to fulfil their goal.
He said they started last year through a project called Youth Investing in Modern Farming in which they teach young people about modern farming methods.
According to Mkandawire, they want youth to run farms in all places which were used for Malawi Young Pioneer bases so that Malawi’s agriculture industry should be transformed and young people should make money.
“We are aiming high to fulfil the project, this project will help youth in different ways as you are aware three quarters of Malawian youth are jobless so this will help them to empower themselves.
“EYED decided to start modern faming since everything now is going modern,” said Nyirenda who has been a farmer for 10 years now.
Apart from farming, youth at EYED are also involved in other activities to generate funds. The money generating activities include organising talents shows as well as producing jingles, comedies, and movies
“We have youth who have different talents and those talents we transformed into business for example we worked with TNM during the launch of the Super League second round last year at Mzuzu stadium,” said Mkandawire.
Mkandawire added that last year on 29 September they organised Executive Fundraising Dinner where they introduced themselves to the private sector on what they want to do and how companies can support the organisation.
What exactly is meant by ‘Modern Farming’? Is it the use of pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, hybridized seeds, or genetic engineering? Malawi has hundreds upon hundreds of traditional crops that are well-adapted to growing in Malawi’s unique climate, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. Many of these crops are seasonal, which helps to provide access to food security throughout the year. Many are much higher in nutritional content than ‘modern’ crops (just compare the nutrition in crops like chisoso or bonogwe to a crop like cabbage). Traditional crops can be used to eliminate things like ‘hungry seasons, malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies that we have become chronic problems in Malawi. These are all crops that are open-pollinated (which means that the seeds can be saved and re-planted for free from year to year), and these are crops that do well without the use of chemical fertilizers. (Ask a local farmer if crops like millets (mawere), sorghum (mapira), yams (chilazi mpama), local beans (chimbamba), fruits (malambe, matowo, masuku, etc), vegetables (denje, luni, mwamunaaligone, etc) need fertilizer, I’d be surprised to hear them say yes). For the past 60-70 years, many of Malawi’s agricultural research stations have spent a great deal of time, energy and money on trying to get maize (a Central American crop) to grow better in Africa, while continuing to ignore, over-look, and even stigmatize local foods. Many of these crops could be used to create value-added products, export markets, employment, and income generation. When we use a term like ‘modern,’ we should be trying to build on the nzeru of Malawi’s traditional knowledge, not discarding it in favor of high-cost, environmentally-damaging, chemically-dependent, monocropping of introduced foods.
Here we go ! Go youth of Malawi ! Go youth of Africa ! Youth are the leader of today not tomorrow but kid are the leader of tomorrow before the get age of youth ! We transform our country now by working hard so that we remove the bad name called poor less country it pains us !