FUM President Manes Nkhata said this on Tuesday after visiting the damaged Kambenje Irrigation Scheme in Mulanje.

“These farmers need to be provided with early maturing crops and as a body that represents farmers, we will lobby government and Non-Governmental Organizations to quickly provide technical and financial support for the rehabilitation of all damaged irrigation schemes,” said Nkhata.

“I am impressed that Village Head Kambenje and the farmers here have started preparing their fields on this scheme and we need to support them,” added Nkhata.

Village Headman Kambenje told Zodiak Online that close to 1200 farmers who depend on the damaged Kambenje Irrigation Scheme for food production have been rendered destitute.

“We were about to start harvesting rain fed crops like maize but floods swept away the crops and as you can see, even the soil has gone,” worried the Village Head.

He said the scheme is 162 hectares and 150 hectares have been damaged.

Earlier, the FUM officials donated Cyclone Freddy relief food stuffs to Mulanje District Council.

The council’s Disaster Risk Management Officer Maria Joseph said there are some camps especially in Traditional Authority Njema that are not reachable due to extreme damage of the road network.

“We really thank government through DODMA and other partners for their enormous response to this disaster but we are asking for shelter kits for rebuilding,” said Joseph. 

The FUM President was accompanied by FUM Chief Executive Officer, Jacob Nyirongo and other FUM officials.