NEWS:

19 Jul, 2016


Kazembe (left) explaining how she has benefited from Quinoa
Nkhunga EPA Farmers in Nkhotakota have hailed Total Land Care (TLC) and its partners Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and University of Washington (USA) for conducting quinoa field trails in the area saying quinoa has promoted nutrition in the area.

This was revealed at a Quinoa Open Day conducted on Thursday 14th July 2016 at Phaso village in Nkhotakota.

Quinoa, an emerging crop originated from Andean region of South America, has so much promise that the United Nations and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) declared 2013 as the International year of quinoa which was marked with activities that raised awareness about the value of the crop and its potential to contribute to food and nutrition security in many countries struggling with malnutrition.

One of the farmers in the area, Chikondi Kazembe said since she started growing quinoa, the nutrition of her family has improved saying at first it was difficult for her family to have balanced diets on a daily basis.

“Quinoa has improved health status of my family and the entire community. Our children are health and malnutrition is now history as quinoa can be used for porridge, nsima, the leaves can be used for relish and we also use the flower for making different snacks such as flitters,” she said.

She further urged fellow farmers to embrace the crop as it has a lot value in terms of nutrition.

Group village head (GVH) Kalewa whose area has benefited from the crop hailed TLC and its collaborating partners for coming with the project in the area and urged them especially LUANAR to continue engaging local people in its research projects.

According to Project Principal Investigator who is an Associate Professor in Plant Breeding, Dr Moses Maliro, 13 quinoa varieties were introduced in Malawi in 2012 through a collaborative research work of LUANAR and University of Washington for adaptation studies.

“Initial trials were conducted at Bunda Campus and Bembeke Sub-Research Station of Department of Agricultural Research Services (DARS) in Dedza under irrigated conditions. In 2013 additional trials were conducted within the compounds of Catholic Parishes at Sitima and Namitembo in Zomba and AquAid Centres of Sitima (Zomba) and Lunzu in Blantyre,” he said.

Information from TLC shows that three years ago, TLC with grant from the Royal Norwegian Government under Management for Adaptation to Climate Change II (MACC II) with support from LUANAR and University of Washington began funding experimentation in cultivating the crop in the country and field tests were conducted in the project sites to see which environments were best suited to grow the grain and which varieties of the grain were superior.

Dr Maliro said so far farmers are already alluding to the fact that the grain is helping in improving the nutrition of children and adults in areas where it is grown.

He said the crop has a great potential to contribute to Malawi and Africa’s food security as it is a food crop and adds to crop diversification for smart agriculture in the quest of adaptation to climate change impact.

“The current worldwide demand for healthy foods like quinoa also represents an opportunity for the country to produce quinoa as food grain that can be exported for forex revenues,” he said.

Apart from Nkhotakota, field trials are being conducted in Dowa, Ntchisi and Salima districts representing three ecological areas of warm (lakeshore), mid-altitude (Mwansambo area) and high altitude (cool areas of Dowa and Ntchisi).



Written By: Patricia Nkhoma