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| National |
| Invest in us, Dowa farmer tells diplomats |
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by
George Ntonya, 15 August 2003
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13:53:17
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A Dowa farmer has told African diplomats resident in the country that unless governments and non-governmental organisations invest handsomely in farmers, the country would not become self-reliant in food.
Glyvyns Chinkhuntha, who got an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Malawi because of his unique organic farm and its gravity irrigation system, told the diplomats that it was sad that governments continue to spend millions to train agriculturists who do not participate in farming and transfer the little knowledge they have to farmers.
“Those who have a pool of knowledge are not willing to participate in farming and those who are supposed to produce food for the country are not equipped with knowledge about modern farming. The result is continued food shortage,” Chinkhuntha told the diplomats who visited his farm on Thursday.
He wondered why Malawi should continue to beg for food from other countries when it has a pool of agricultural experts and natural resources such as water.
“Education must not only mean the ability for one to develop a project proposal to beg from donors. It must also mean the ability for one to turn trash into something useful,” the farmer emphasised in reference to use of organic matter to improve soil fertility instead of organic fertilizer, which he said was expensive.
Chinkhuntha, whose farm has become a training ground for agriculture students across the globe and local farmers, also lamented that some projects that aim at improving the skills of farmers in the country fail to achieve results because project money end up in the pockets of experts, in the form of allowances for workshops and seminars.
The diplomats concurred with Chinkhuntha—who resigned from office work 20 years ago to take up commercial farming—that Malawi, like other countries in the Sadc region, has the potential to feed itself.
“The African Union (AU) is very concerned with the hunger situation in Africa, particularly in southern Africa,” said AU executive secretary Susan Sikaneta who led the delegation.
She said that her office will do everything within its capacity to help Malawi and other AU members to improve agricultural production through such interventions as small-scale irrigation.
An international conference on food security and nutrition, which will group experts from different member states, is expected to take place in Lilongwe in December this year, disclosed Sikaneta who, like the other diplomats, got inspired by Chinkhuntha’s innovations and hardworking spirit.
“I am impressed, really,” remarked South African High Commissioner Carter Seleka who said there was need for the diplomatic missions to facilitate educational visits for farmers in the region to tour successful agricultural projects as a way of inspiring them.
“People need to know the achievements of others for them to get inspired,” he observed.
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