Farmers rue dry spell

Two weeks and counting of a dry spell have left farmers such as Joseph Kamanga helpless as their crops are drying up, throwing them into debt and potential of food insecurity. WhenWeekend Nationvisited Kamanga in his maize garden in Kampikamtama Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Chigalu in Blantyre, he was staring at his maize field that is fast drying up. He said the prolonged dry spell threatens not only his family’s food supply but also his ability to repay farm loans.

This season, Kamanga planted maize on 1.5 acres. In the 2023/2024 agricultural season, the same land produced about 80 bags of 50 kilogrammes each before producing about 20 bags of maize last agricultural season. Now, he fears the yield may not even reach five bags.

He said: “I applied four 50kg bags of fertiliser which I got as a loan from One Acre Fund. We were getting two bags of fertiliser plus a 10kg bag of maize seed at K291 000. “But now my worry is where the money will come from to repay the loan, because as things are now, I doubt if I can harvest even five bags.” Like many smallholder farmers, Kamanga depends on good rains to repay agricultural loans and sustain his household.

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With maize failing, Kamanga is appealing for help, not in cash, but in alternatives that can withstand dry conditions. His plight mirrors the situation in some parts of the country. Posting on his Facebook post on Sunday, Chibondo Chibondo of Binali Village, T/A Nankumba in Mangochi asked God to bringing rains in the district, fearing that if the situation continues it means more disasters.

In an interview on Monday, Mangochi District chief agriculture officer Oscar Kambombe said about 13 864 hectares (ha) of crops have been affected by the dry spells, representing about 8 percent of the total 173 011ha of the district’s agricultural area. He said out of the total affected hectares, crops in 6 351ha have completely dried up. Said Kambombe: “Most of the areas whose crops have completely dried up, last experienced rainfall on January 1 2026.

The affected crops include maize and rice among others. So, as a district, we will start irrigation early on the 3 337 hectares irrigation developed area. “Further to that, we are also appealing to more well-wishers to support our affected farmers with cassava cuttings to utilise the residual moisture.”

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