By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale has urged farmers in the country to adopt the news farming technologies that are resilient to climate change challenges so as to bring back the past glory of food security.
The minister said this in Blantyre on Friday during the launch of newly introduced Eagle Nano Urea Gold Fertilizer.
Kawale said the ministry thought of introducing the liquid fertilizer product on the market after research revealed that the product was environmental friendly to climate change challenges.
” The product has been fully tested and approved by government after a thorough research for two years. It has proved to be environmental friendly, cost effective and soil nutrient booster from 8 percent to 18 percent,” he said
Among others, Kawale said the liquid product would help the country reduce 70 percent demand for foreign exchange, labour and transportation cost challenges.
Kawale said the importation of one container for the product would substitute over fourty containers of chemical fertilizers that government used.
” Farmers need just to change their mindset by embracing this new innovative technologies that can go along the way to increase their production so as to help reduce food insecurity challenges that have come due to the increased high costs of chemical fertilizers on the global market due to dual politics,” he said
According to Kawale, government has also approved to include the Eagle Nano liquid fertilizer during this year’s Affordable Input Programme( AIP).
The agriculture minister further disclosed that discussions were underway for the liquid fertilizer to be manufactured within the country so as to cut foreign exchange challenges and transportation.
The Eagle Nano Urea gold fertilizer is currently being distributed in India by Ray Nano research centre and is being distributed in the country by Paramount Holdings Limited.
Speaking in a separate interview, the managing director for Paramount Holdings Limited Prakash Ghedia described the product as a game changer towards the country’s road to food and nutrition security.
Ghedia said since the the half acre liquid fertilizer product was introduced in India,the food security and adoption rate have been increasing yearly.
Ghedia said his company has also entered into the memorandum of understanding with the agro dealers association of Malawi for a countrywide distribution of the product.
A farmer from Nema farm seeds in Lilongwe, Brighton Maonga said since they started using the product, their produced has doubled as compared to the use of chemical fertilizers.
Maonga however, asked the distributors to enhance awareness strategies to ensure increased adoption rate.
” As a new technology, there is need for increased awareness to change the mindset of farmers, otherwise, this will be another white elephant, ” he said.
Eagle Nano liquid Urea fertilizer is currently being sold at Mk65,000.
