By Listen Ngwazi
The European Union has expressed satisfaction with the achievements the Afikepo project has registered in food and nutrition security and modern crop and livestock farming in Thyolo District.
A representative of EU, Tomaida Msika, said on Thursday at the Afikepo’s district exiting ceremony that EU was impressed with the project positive impact, adding that communities gained vast knowledge on food preparation to deal with malnutrition amongst the children.
She also noted that the project mobilized communities to adopt new crop and animal farming methods, saying this was possible because of government’s full support.
“I applaud the Malawi Government for extending the fund to rural areas where it is needed; otherwise the fund would have been diverted,” Msiska said.
Thyolo District Commissioner Hudson Kuphanga described the project as fruitful, saying the project trained communities modern farming methods that can sustain their livelihood.
“Our extension workers will continue guiding the farmers to sustain on what they learnt from Afikepo,” he said.
One of the beneficiaries, Alex Sinoya, said that farmers in the district have acquired a lot of knowledge from Afikepo project and pledged that the knowledge gained will keep them going after it exited.
“My family gets manure from the pigs, which are applied to the crops. I used to harvest little before Afikepo, but now I am able to harvest 36 bags of maize from the same plot I used to harvest 18 bags. This is my testimony,” he said, adding that he was able to support his family financially after selling pigs.
The project exit was held under the theme ‘Sustainable agriculture; key to food, income and nutrition security’.
Afikepo, an agricultural project funded by EU, has been implemented in the district since 2018.