Ntchisi, June 10, 2016: Some farmers in Ntchisi are now finding their gold out of sweet potato business which is selling like hot bread in the district.

A recent quick survey by Mana to a specific place where a sweet potatoes are sold around Ntchisi market  revealed that most farmers are now breathing a sigh of relief towards their business as a 50kg bag of sweet potatoes is selling at a minimum price of MK7,000 while a bigger one is selling at MK15 000.

According to one sweet potato farmer who is enjoying the business Mikael Zingathe, the crop is an alternative to other cash crops which require much attention to grow which is different from sweet potatoes.

He said that the crop needs less labour to be used in the field and planting sweet potatoes is very important as a farmer can sell this crop while saving maize to be used for food in the family at a later date.

“Unlike other crops, sweet potatoes are a drought resistant crop and it easily adapts to unfavourable rain and disease as it is not easily affected by diseases. This crop does not need much money to invest in the field as with manure only you can still produce high yields and hence saving the money which could be used to buy fertilizer.” explained  Zingathe.

As a result of this business, most vendors from other districts are now flocking in Ntchisi district to buy these sweet potatoes in bulk which they sell in their perspective districts.

Timothy Manguluti a sweet potato vendor, who comes from Dedza to buy this crop for business, concured with Zingathe by saying that he finds so much profit when he sells sweet potatoes in his district.

“It is now a year since I started this business but there is so much development I have made in my life. I have bought an oxcart and three motorcycles which I also conduct business with and all these out of sweet potato business. The good thing is that I do not worry about making losses due to the damages as the sweet potatoes are hard and rarely  get scratches which means that I can store them for at least one week without rotting and hence my customers keep on coming any time they need the potatoes,” said Manguluti.

According to Manguluti, out of a MK7, 000 bag, he finds a profit of MK6,000 which is almost close to his buying price a case which lives him with smiles on his sweet potato business.

The crop which does not need a lot of rainfall is suitable with the current climate change and its availability to a lot of farmers will minimize cases of hunger which is still looming in the country.