By Majona Jabesi Mnjuzi
In an effort to curb the challenges posed by climate change and declining soil fertility, Kangwele youth in Traditional Authority Nyoka in Mchinji have embraced permaculture farming.
The youth have been undergoing permaculture training spearheaded by Mlatho Farm and Agri-learning Hub aimed at equipping youthful farmers with knowledge and practical skills on sustainable land use for improved biodiversity and soil fertility enrichment.
Speaking during a graduation of the youths on Friday, Mlatho Farm and Agri-learning Hub Executive Director, Daniel Chibwe said most farmers have experienced first-hand diverse effects of climate change and poor soil fertility, which consequently cause low agriculture production so the training was to help eradicate such challenges.
“The training was aimed at imparting permaculture knowledge among youth so that they should shift towards more sustainable farming practices by adopting permaculture farming.
“We have taught them how they can prepare manure, organic pesticides, Mbeya fertilizer and others, using materials which are locally available in our communities,” said Chibwe.Asinet Banda, one of the training beneficiaries at Kangwele, expressed optimism about the potential impact of permaculture on their farming practice.
“We have benefited a lot through these trainings. We are envisioning the reduction of costs as we will not need to buy fertilizers because we will be making our own Mbeya fertilizer which is also environmental friendly,” said Banda.
Mchinji District Youth Officer, Maudlin Nhlema, hailed the training as essential to create nature-positive agriculture practice that can withstand the impact of climate change and crop resilient from pests and diseases.
“I am impressed with these trainings. Permaculture is good in as far as our future planning of farming activities amongst young people is concerned. We all know that now our environment is heavily degraded and we need to replenish what has been taken out from the environment,” said Nhlema.
The five days training benefited 192 youths at Kangwele, and all of them have been given certificates.
Mlatho Farm and Agri-learning Hub was supported by Permaculture Austria through Perma-Fund 24.
Permaculture refers to the concept of utilising land, resources, people and the environment in a manner that does not produce any waste and it integrates human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.
