The World Food Programme (WFP) says embracing the use of manure amid rising chemical fertilizer prices can boost Malawi’s quest to achieve zero hunger.

Speaking after a field monitoring exercise in Zomba, WFP-Malawi Deputy Country Director Simon Denhere said he was impressed by farmers who are producing organic fertilizers on their own following interventions by the Adaptation Fund project aimed at addressing adverse effects of climate change.

“It’s very encouraging to see that the local farmers have had the initiative to produce local fertilizers and use them. The crop was actually looking good as if chemical fertilizers were used,” Denhere said.

The $9.9 million five-year project is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture in conjunction with WFP with funding from Adaptation Fund.

Apart from enhancing climate-resilient agriculture practices, the project’s other goals are to ensure improved access to insurance as a risk transfer mechanism and connecting farmers to markets to guarantee profitability.

Zomba District Commissioner Reinghard Chavula expressed optimism that the interventions will improve livelihoods of people in six TAs in the district.

“Farmers are being encouraged to plant crops separately and that is quite helping in terms of production, and I am very hopeful that in few years from now most farmers here will be self-sufficient,” Chavula said.

Mary Tsabola of GVH Machilika in TA Ntholowa, who produced and used manure and Mbeya fertilizer in her one-acre maize field, said she expects to harvest more than 20 bags in the 2022/23 farming season.