Farmers in Mchinji are exited with new groundnut varieties introduce to them by Global seeds. The farmers have expressed the gratitude during a field day organized by Global seeds in collaboration with Center for Agricultural Production (CAT). The field day happened in Mchinji on 25 March 2021 at a field owned by one of the members of Chioko cooperative.

One of the farmers, Stephano John said, “We have been cultivating old varieties that are easily attacked by pest and diseases. Rosette being the most dangerous of all diseases, but CG9 variety is tolerant to rosette disease”, sounding concerned.

John further said that as farmers they believe that the new varieties will help boost their groundnuts yield and therefore realize high profits from the venture. CG 9 variety in terms of appearance it’s the same only and the only difference is that its not attacked by rossete disease.

“At this stage, we have already compared with groundnuts of other varieties, and at this stage the other varieties are highly attacked by rosette and this CG 9 variety is still intact, “John said.

Global Seeds Managing director, Shane Phiri highlighted the need for farmers to embrace the new groundnuts varieties as they give high yield and great profits. “As a company we believe that groundnuts has potential to contribute to food and income security, but yields on farmers’ fields are well below potentials yield. There are several factors that contribute yields including crop management and poor-quality seed.  Farmers use outdated farming practices and use recycled seed and old varieties. The new varieties will help farmers to realize high yields.”

 To increase smallholder farmers productivity, Global seeds in collaboration with Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) is working with smallholder farmers to improve groundnut production.

Global seed is providing farmers with new groundnut rossete tolerant diseases. These varieties include CG 9 and CG 11. Most farmers have been using old varieties which most of them were suspectable to rossete disease. The new varieties are high yielding because of their tolerance to rossete diseases. Global seeds work with smallholder farmers as out growers for their seed. The out growers are engaged on contract to produce and sale the produce as seed to the company.

Despite working tirelessly on their farms, the farmers could not harvest more due to quality of seed they use. By the smallholder farmers partnering with Global seeds has offered us a very good opportunity to access good quality seed, extension services and offer a very good market for the produce as seed buy back.

To make sure that the message for the rosette tolerant varieties to reach to many farmers, Global seeds and CAT has mounted demonstration plots in the different areas that they are working with. Demonstration plots were conducted in Lilongwe, Mchinji, Kasungu and Ntchisi. The demonstration plots act as platform for farmers to see the benefits of the groundnuts varieties being promoted. They also offer a very good opportunity for extension officers to interact with the farmers.

 “At Global Seeds, we are guided by the philosophy of ‘improving lives of smallholder farmers’, hence our target in the agricultural sector are the smallholder farmers. We want to empower smallholder farmers to consider groundnut production as a commercial enterprise. We provide them with high quality basic seed to produce for us certified seed. We then buy back the at agreed price with the smallholder farmers. We make sure that we buy back the seed as soon as they finish sorting and grading the seed. We do understand that improved management practices are instrumental to increased productivity, we provide extension services to make sure that they improve their productivity. We therefore encourage these kinds of partnerships,” Global Seeds Project Manager, Sharif Mgwira said.