2023/24 REMINISCENT ( UNFORGETTABLE) GROWING SEASON TO FARMERS

 "I have a big farmland measuring more than one acre and a half. Together with the children I stay with, we farm on this land. With good rains, I harvest 20-50kg bags of maize. This year, to be honest, I have harvested nothing." 

 Farming practices like ploughing, making ridges, planting crops, weeds removal and many others to be done it is not easy because it needs a lot of power, it takes time for a one practice to be completed if the workers are few, but a farmer sacrifice his/her self in order to enjoy at the end of the growing season

because it's when a farmer sells crops which have been harvested. This happens almost each and every year but this year the story has changed, farmers are just singing that complaintive song " I have harvested nothing", " I have harvested nothing",

 2023/24 growing season is unforgettable to many farmers, season of El Niño, El Niño is a Spanish word which means boy child, but the word was taken to mention the situation when coastal waters become warmer in the eastern tropical Pacific and the Pacific Ocean warms and disrupts weather around the globe. In Malawi, where the rains were delayed in places by up to two months, the ongoing El Niño has resulted in a severe drought, and led to failed crops for many subsistence farmers. Here in Malawi, the El Niño season began in November 2023. Although its too early to tell, it might affect the 2023-24 growing season. Not all El Niño years create food production shortfalls. Over the past 40 years, there were 11 El Niño episodes globally, of which seven negatively affected crop production in Malawi and four did not. This is because El Niño differs from event to event: in some years, El Niño may bring more rainfall but, in most years, it causes less rainfall than normal.

However, in those seven negatively affected years, Malawi harvested 22.5% less maize than expected on average. On Saturday 23 March 2024 president of republic of Malawi Dr. Lazarus Chakwera announced that 2 million farming households in 23 out of 28 districts have been affected by the El Nino-induced dry spells and need food.

On the ground this is true indeed, 

for instance in Lilongwe the most popular district of this country. I hard a journey to visit different farms in Chimutu village, T/A Chiseka and listen to farmers on how this kind of drought has affected them, the first farmer to meet with was Mr. F. Zakariya,an old man in the village, he lives alone following the death of his wife in march 2023, on his field he grows maize more than other crops because the main goal of this man is for him to have enough food and share to others if it is  more but this year of 2024 he his doubting if he will manage even to feed himself. 

He said that to him it is for the first his maize to be affected like this with drought (ngamba), he planted maize on 26th November and he did all the field practices needed for maize plant to grow well but after reaching the stage where maize starts to produce a tassel in January 2024, rains stopped until in February which made maize to wheat while not yet reach the stage to be harvested and he just managed to fetch 3 bags from the field which are not enough at all. 

After chatting with that old man, the owner of the maize field I decided to search for another field with different crop from maize and I found ground nuts field, 

the owner of this field is Mr. Blessings Chapatika, he has got a wife and 3 children although he is a builder but his life and of the family actually depends on farming, he likes to grow crops which are more profitable, in years back he was growing tobacco and he was benefiting a lot from that kind of farming because he bought an ox cart and a maize mill. In 2021 he shifted to another profitable crop which is ground nuts following increase in price of some recourses needed in tobacco production like fertilizer, he grew ground nuts in another season and he had some benefits as well, he was happy he did not think of growing another crop than ground nuts, coming 2023/24 growing he added one hector to have more profits. Mr. Blessings Chapatika also planted his ground nuts in November 2023 as that old man did, rain started falling in good manner and reduced in amount in January at the stage when ground nuts started producing some flowers, rain came again in February but it was too late for the ground nuts to be productive enough,

 ground nuts is still in the field as of now he is not expecting to harvest even half of the kilograms he has been harvesting in past seasons.

Some farmers in the same village after realizing that they will not get anything from their fields they started taking measures on their own,

 the field which the owner planted maize, he cut it and plant sweet potatoes which do not need much water. Other farmers planted cassava which also survive without more water and many fields in this village are occupied with sweet potatoes 

to at least have something which they can put in their mouths.