At least 40 agriculture extension workers from seven districts have graduated from a three-week-long Farmer Field School in Zomba.

The Farmer Field School is under the government’s World Bank-funded Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP).

Doureen Mkomera Banda, an extension worker from Kunthembwe Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Blantyre said she has acquired knowledge and skills on environmental conservation and improving soil health.

“We have learned how we can care seeds start from planting to harvest and also monitoring crops. We will encourage our farmers to plant more trees in hills to conserve our environment,” Banda said.

In his remarks, Zomba District chief agriculture officer, Misheck Chawala described the training as key in facilitating the adoption of new farming technologies.

He commended MWASIP for promoting sustainable land and water management practices in the district in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“Farmers now are able to take care of regenerated forests and conserve their pieces of land because of what they are learning in the project,” Chawala said.

MWASIP seeks to support the implementation of National Forest Landscape Restoration Strategy which targets to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded landscape by 2030.