Chinthenga club Vice Secretary Mary Manase in Traditional Authority Chikumbu says their chiefs engaged farmers for them to uproot disease affected banana and plant new varieties. 

“On this nursery we have 93 banana plants that started producing materials for planting and so far we have distributed two plants to 42 farmers in the village,” said Manase.

Lead farmer for Mukharara club in T/A Mabuka Aubrey Phiri says the club has so far distributed suckers to 96 farmers.

“We have shared some disease free varieties to farmers in other villages after they uprooted their affected plants,” said Phiri.

Meanwhile, director of Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources at Mulanje district council Yaz Nyirenda has called for coordination among farmers, chiefs and extension workers to improve banana production.

“We still have pockets of farmers who are resisting uprooting their already affected crops but we hope through our continued engagement with chiefs, they will sooner or later uproot all affected crops and plant disease free plants,” said Nyirenda.

Mulanje District Commissioner Stallichi Mwambiwa has since advised farmers to grasp services offered by agricultural extension workers.

“As a council, we are encouraged with the hard working spirit among banana farmers and this is what will help them have three meals on their table each day,” said Mwambiwa.

The country’s banana production has dwindled for number of years because of banana bunchy top disease which attacked huge hectors of banana.