Government says it will soon employ 400 extension workers, in an effort to close the widening ratio between farmers and extension workers in the country. The Director of Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES), Jerome Nkhoma said  that Government has already made a number of steps to address this situation.

“At the moment, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources will be graduating close to 400 extension workers. Soon after graduation, they will be deployed as officers in different districts in the country. This is just the first step,” he said.

The Deputy General Representative of the Government of Flanders, Nikolas Bosscher, said the current extension workers in Malawi already have their hands full, working with new farmers each agricultural season, hence the need for more extension workers. “The ratio of the farmer to the extension worker is between 2, 000 to 3, 000. So, that’s quite a lot of work for one extension worker. So, there is a big gap. So, the idea is how we can close that gap through the use of new innovations such as radio, video, Whatsapp groups, etc,” he said.