Authorities in the Agriculture sector have emphasized that growers need to work in farmer clubs to make significant progress in transforming the sector.

Assistant Agriculture Extension Development Officer for Chiwenga EPA in the area of Traditional Authority Maliri in Lilongwe district, Ellard Phiri, says this is important in aspects that include procurement of farm inputs.

He was speaking when an Agro-dealer, Go Jet Investments, delivered maize seed to members of Kumitsinje Farmers Club in the area in preparation for the coming growing season.

The farmer have bought the maize seed in instalments under an initiative which the company is implementing.

“As government we encourage farmers to work in clubs. This initiative started in May and as you can see, they have already bought the seed. They did not have the burden to find huge sums of money to buy the seed at once”, said Phiri.

Go Jet Investments - Operations Director, Ackim Douglas, said the company targets 50 farmer clubs who will buy maize seed in installments.

He said the initiative commenced after observing that the farmers were struggling to buy the seed.

“When the farmers are in groups it becomes easy for us to reach out to them as compared to finding them individually”, said Douglas.

Chairperson for Kumitsinje Farmers Club, Lucina Chidzanja commended the company for the initiative.

Each farmer has managed to buy 5 kilograms of certified maize seed.