By JULIUS PHIRI –
AN AGRONOMIST expert Christian Thierfelder has urged farmers to diversify crops in order to increase their food production.
Dr Thierfelder from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) said that farmers could only increase their production through diversification of crops.
There was need to generate interests from the farmers in order to diversify the farming methods.
Dr Thierfelder said in Lundazi when he addressed farmers under Sustainable Intensification of Maize Legume Systems for Eastern Zambia (SIMLEZA) African-Rising on Thursday that there was need for farmers not only to depend on maize but also venture into other crops like soya beans.
He said crops like maize needed fertiliser in order to get a better harvest but that other crops were not reliant on fertiliser.
He called for dedication among the farmers in order to venture into new farming methods which were more sustainable.
“I am coming here as a teacher and at the same time as a student for you farmers. Fertiliser will not fall from the sky nor you won’t find fertiliser underground but you have to venture into other new crops which are beneficial to the farmers,”Dr Thierfelder said.
CIMMYT agronomist Dr Walter Mupangwa said there need to practice crop rotation which he said was part of increasing the farming production.
Lundazi District Agriculture Coordinator Philimon Lungu said it was sad that most of the farmers were still using old farming methods that were not sustainable.