Farmers urged to take farming as business
Danish Church Aid (DCA), an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), has advised farmers in Karonga and Chitipa districts to embrace farming as a business.
DCA disaster officer Lewis Karenda said lack of agricultural knowledge among smallholder farmers has prevented them from realising the benefit of farming as a business.
form cooperatives
He was speaking recently during the closing ceremony of a three-day Ulimi ndi Business (farming is an enterprise) workshop for 10 lead farmers drawn from the two districts.
Karenda said due to an existing knowledge gap, unscrupulous traders have taken advantage to exploit farmers by buying produce at lower-than-recommended prices.
“Malawi’s economy relies on agriculture. As such, it is important for smallholder farmers to have the knowledge to enable them to go commercial and realise more profits,” he said.
The workshop, which was organised by Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) with funding from DCA, was aimed at equipping farmers with farm business skills, among other things.
EAM project officer, Layman Kaira said the trained farmers are expected to teach others.
“We hope that the lead farmers will train others in their respective areas and form cooperatives which will enable them to set good prices for their livestock. n
