DAPP Women fighting hunger through conservation agriculture

Climate change in Malawi has resulted in adverse weather conditions threatening the lives of many households as most people in the country depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
In some parts of the southern Malawi like Chikhwawa people were affected by prolonged droughts. Most people that depended on rain fed agriculture had little to harvest.
The family of Veronica Masitala has a different story; they will have a bumper harvest. She says they owe their big yield to DAPP Malawi’s conservation agriculture.
“Through the new farming technology from DAPP Malawi we are able realise good harvest even in times of less rains. We are now planting our maize in pits, applying manure and covering the planting stations with grass. It is called pit planting a form of conservation agriculture,” she says.
The project is implemented with financial support from UK Aid, through the Department for International Development (DfID), DAPP is implementing a three year Farmer Clubs project in Chikhwawa
In the new farming method it is also very easy to calculate that amount of harvest a farmer will get at the end of the season. It is also a farming technique that uses less labour. Most of tilling is abandoned with this kind of practice.
“Before we adopted this method we used to plant seeds in planting stations and in ridges. When we compare the harvest with what we get now we are getting more yield per station.” Continued Kositala
It is estimated that farmers get up to one kilogram of maize per pit which has our seeds.