The government has reiterated calls for the country's smallholder farmers to adopt the use of manure and stay away on the over depedency of chemical fertilisers to maximize their farm yields.

Principal Secretary for Rural and Infrastructure Development for the Ministry of Local Government Dingiswayo Jere says using manure is also beneficial in reducing the costs that the farmers incur in buying chemical fertilisers.

"I would like to tell our smallholder farmers in the country that manure remains beneficial to their farming unlike chemical fertilisers and added that if the farmers adopt this it will also help the the government to spend less on farm inputs under  Fertilizer Subsidy Input Programme," he said.

Both Country Director for DAPP Moses Chibwana and  Commodity Specialist for Groundnuts and Sunflower Charles Changalala under trade programe in the ministry of Local Government and Rural Development are confident that the farmers they are supporting will realize bumper yields beside making profits this year.

"We are very impressed with how our farmers are fairing in their farming here in Ntchisi and we are confident that they will relialize bumper yieds this year," said Chibwana and Changalala.

However, Senior Chief Nthondo of the district called on  government to provide better markets for the farmers and upgrade all road networks, which are in bad shape in the area.

"Our roads are in bad sharp so I would like to ask government to help us upgrade them for the farmers here to easily transport their produce to the markets," said the Senior Chief.

DAPP in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development are implementing a 6 year TRADE project aimed at strengthening Soyabean, Maize, livestocks and Groundnuts Value Chain through Promotion of Climate Sensitive Technologies to improve Productivity and income at Household Level with support from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) targeting at least 123,000 farmers in eleven districts including Ntchisi.