Farmers advised to use Purdue Improved Crop Storage bags

Feed the future Malawi Agriculture Diversification Activity funded by USAID, has encouraged farmers in the country to store their grain and legume crops in Purdue Improved Crop Storage (Pics) Bags.

According to Feed the future, Pics bags are an affordable technology that can quickly provide rural households increased income and security.

Speaking during a Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bag symposium workshop in Lilongwe, an Agriculture productivity lead, Shelix Munthali, said sales of pics bags have increased this year because they have seen the importance of the bags.

Munthali said they are engaging different stakeholders to take part in the awareness of the benefits of the PICS bags, even those in rural areas so that they can also have access to the bags in their communities.

He said the bags are of high quality since they can be used for 3 years without getting damaged and they store grain and legume crops effectively.

In his remarks, a scientist at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station in Dedza, Charles Singano, said the pics bags technology has the capacity of improving and maintaining food security in Malawi because the bags help in protecting the grain and legumes from pests.

Singano said the fact that the bags have thin plastics inside them is not a threat to the environment because they are subject recycle.

Commenting on the development, a farmer from Masomphenya Producer and Marketing Limited in Dedza, Mercy Goodson, who stood to give a testimony, said she has benefited a lot from using them.

Goodson said among others, the bags helps her to have enough food every year as no pests affect her maize, she saves money because she does not buy and apply pesticides to the her grain.

Goodson then urged farmers in the country to try PICS bags and see the difference.

The symposium whose aim was to enable stakeholders to learn from each other and build upon achievements, best practices and challenges, brought together key players in food security such as the NGO community, policy representatives of the farmer organizations and Development Partners among others.