Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeBusiness‘Rural farmers need tech education’

‘Rural farmers need tech education’

Care for Nature exec says skills building needed for robust agri sector

BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes

FARMERS in rural areas need agriculture education to enable them adopt new technologies which will assist in increasing yields, says Care for Nature Zambia Executive Director, Nsama Musonda Kearns.

Ms Kearns said climate change required farming to adopt new technologies, irrigation methods, drought resistant crops and farming practices such as conservation agriculture.

She said in a statement that agriculture education was therefore important because most subsistence farmers still relied on the indigenous knowledge of farming.

“Adult and continued education for rural farmers, including metrological information and disaster mitigation and preparedness will help to improve the agriculture sector and triple the harvest,” Ms Kearns said.

He observed that rural areas that provided the highest labor force in agriculture, often lacked farming inputs.

Ms Kearns said despite the Farmer Input Support Programme being of help to thousands of farmers, there was need for Agriculture extension officers to be more pro-active and provide Agriculture education adequately to people in the rural communities.

“Most subsistence farmers still rely on the indigenous knowledge of farming and rarely know the type of soils they have, what crops are suitable for those soils and how they can sustainably fertilise their soils without killing the soil nutrients through use of chemicals,” she said.

Climate change, he said, had posed a challenge which required a shift from the usual farming methods to sustainable climate smart agriculture practices that were cautious of floods and drought.

She said this was despite Zambia’s potential to become a regional food basket following the vast arable land and favorable rainfall patterns.

Ms Kearns also observed the need to establish banks for farmers to help meet the financial gaps.

“Not all farmers benefit from FISP, and for those who are not beneficiaries, buying chemical fertilizers is quiet costly especially that they cannot get loans from banks due to security and issue of collateral,” she said.

She further observed the urgent need to secure customary land from large scale acquisition because 94 percent of rural agriculture was on customary land.

Ms Kearns said without land security, it was difficult for farmers to plan especially for crops like cassava that take three years to grow. “Every trained farmer needs to be awarded a customary land certificate to ensure security and peace of mind,” she said.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

Recent Comments

Observer. on SEX PILLS IN WATER
Dr. I.P.A. Manning on THE BAN OF POACHERS IN ZAMBIA
Lulumbi on EXPENSIVE WORSHIP
Patrick Bwalya on THE ALEX CHOLA FACT-FILE
Patrick BWALYA on DRIVER HACKED, LEFT FOR DEAD