Africa-Press – Malawi. Local farmers are being encouraged to go for crop rotation against the devastating Soybean Rust disease in a bid to sustain bumper yields The call was made during a day-long stakeholder consultative and message development meeting on Soybean Rust prevention and management which the Centre for Agriculture Transformation (CAT) organized in the capital Lilongwe on Tuesday, October 10, 2023.
This comes also amid low yields due to the disease that hit hard during the last growing season. Soybean Rust, which is a soil-borne disease, hit hard central region districts that grow the crop for income, including Mchinji, Salima, Lilongwe, Kasungu, and Dowa.
For instance, one of the local female farmers from Chiwamba Extension Planning Area (EPA) Stevelia Sinoya narrated the predicament of harvesting one 50 kilogramme of soy of an acre due to the disease.
Sinoya told The Maravi Post that due to the disease, yields were reduced to 99%. “This has been a devastating growing season. I used 20kgs seeds for an acre but only harvested on a 50kg bag of soy. This is the same land I got 22 bags last season,” worried Stevelia Sinoya.
Sinaoya, therefore, lauded CAT for organizing the stakeholders’ meeting to brainstorm on Soyabean Rust ahead of the new growing season. “Through the meeting, we have been encouraged on crop rotation, planting early maturing varieties against the future occurrence of the disease,” delighted Sinaoya.
Regume Agronomist Florence Kamwana Ngwira from the Department of Agriculture Research Services (DARS) at Chitedze Research Station disclosed that the facility is on crop trials for early maturity varieties. Ngwira also said the Centre is on the anti-soybean Rust campaign for farmers to understand the disease ahead of the new growing season.
CAT Executive Director Macleod Nkhoma said the meeting was meant to bring all stakeholders in Regume production, particularly Soyabean for proper messaging and approaches against future occurrence of the disease.
Nkhoma expects farmers to adopt new approaches to cultivating Soyabean for maximum production. With financial support from the Smoke-Free World Foundation, CAT’s meeting attracted farmers, agriculture experts, academics, and media.
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