세 배의 작물 수확량을 목표로 하는 지속 가능한 농업
보도 자료 15년 2024월 XNUMX일
SUSTAINABLE FARMING INITIATIVE ON TARGET TO TRIPLE CROP YIELDS
Sovereign Metals Limited(ASX:SVM, AIM:SVML)(전에, 기업 정보 or 주권자) is pleased to provide an update on its previously announced Conservation Farming Program (프로그램) 말라위에서.
The Company is actively executing its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Strategy whilst developing the Kasiya Rutile-Graphite Project (가시야 or 프로젝트). The Program is aimed at improving the livelihoods of local communities through the creation of successful smallholder farmers. Farmers have enthusiastically adopted the Program with 90 participants within the Project area being trained in low-input-cost, high-yield sustainable farming techniques. A further 300 farmers will be added during the 2024 planting season.
The Program has already yielded visibly higher crop growth. Preliminary yield estimates have been undertaken through a cob-count and sizing exercise of all 90 farmers. Yields are conservatively estimated at 3.2 tonnes per hectare, tripling average conventional crop yields. This is despite Malawi's crop yields expected to be 22.5% lower than average this year due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Increases in maize (corn) production will be quantified in the coming months during the harvest season. Farmers participating in the Program expect to begin harvesting in May 2024, and are looking forward to a bumper harvest, despite the much drier than usual year caused by El Niño, causing widespread drought across southern Africa.
The Program ultimately aims to provide a platform where successful smallholder farmers can produce sufficient surplus crops to generate sustainable household income.
Figures 1 & 2 - Left: planted field using traditional techniques & Right: Field farmed under the Program showing substantially more crop growth
Sovereign's Managing Director, Frank Eagar 댓글, "The incredible improvements in expected maize yields is beyond expectations and is another example of the positive impacts the Kasiya Project will have on our local communities. The 90 farmers in the Program comprise 50% women and 10% vulnerable people. We will maintain this equal opportunity policy as the Program is rolled out across Kasiya. At a time when Malawi and other southern African countries are facing severe drought due to weather conditions, Sovereign takes its social responsibility very seriously and is already delivering tangible benefits for the local community."
The Program is being implemented by Sovereign's experienced team on the ground, which previously ran a very successful program for First Quantum Minerals Limited's Zambian operations, where its conservation farming program has been effectively operating since 2010. Between 2020 and 2022 harvest crops increased by 67% from 6,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes of maize, with over 7,000 farmers in the program at the end of 2022.
Conservation farming as a system aims to protect soil from erosion and degradation and increase crop yields. It involves three main principles:
1) minimum soil disturbance, such as no-till farming,
2) maintenance of a permanent soil cover, such as cover crops or crop residues and
3) diversification of plant species, such as crop rotation.
This is a highly important program for Malawi with maize making up two-thirds of national calorie intake, with nine out of ten farming households producing maize, devoting over 70% of their land to growing it. Sovereign has already identified the next season's farmers, with the Program being scaled up from 90 to 300 farmers in the 2024/2025 agricultural season. This quantity of farmers will prove that the program successfully increases agricultural production in a sustainable manner, during Sovereign's upcoming Definitive Feasibility Study. Sovereign plans to roll out Conservation Farming as its cornerstone livelihood restoration and improvement project for the Kasiya Project in the medium to long term.
Figure 3 - On-site Program leader, Mr Duncan Chinkanda with local farmers and team members showing Program adopted crops on the left and traditionally farmed land on the right
의 문의
프랭크 이건(남아프리카공화국/말라위) + 61 (8) 9322 6322 | 샘 코딘(퍼스) | 사판가이(런던)
|
AIM 및 공동에 대한 지명된 고문 Broker |
|
SP Angel 기업 금융 LLP | +44 20 3470 0470 |
이완 레갓 찰리 부베라 해리 데이비스-볼 | |
|
|
관절 Brokers |
|
스티 펠 | +44 20 7710 7600 |
바룬 탈와르 |
|
애쉬튼 클랜필드 |
|
|
|
Berenberg | +44 20 3207 7800 |
매튜 아밋 |
|
제니퍼 리 |
|
|
|
뷰캐넌 | + 44 20 7466 5000 |
미래 예측 진술
이 보도자료에는 "기대한다", "예상한다", "믿는다", "프로젝트", "계획하다" 및 이와 유사한 표현과 같은 단어로 식별될 수 있는 미래예측 진술이 포함될 수 있습니다. 이러한 미래예측 진술은 미래 사건에 대한 Sovereign의 기대와 신념을 기반으로 합니다. 미래예측진술은 반드시 위험, 불확실성 및 기타 요인의 영향을 받으며, 그 중 많은 부분이 Sovereign의 통제를 벗어나므로 실제 결과가 그러한 진술과 실질적으로 다를 수 있습니다. 미래예측 진술이 정확하다는 보장은 없습니다. Sovereign은 해당 발표일 이후의 상황이나 사건을 반영하기 위해 이 보도자료에 포함된 미래예측 진술을 이후에 업데이트하거나 수정할 약속을 하지 않습니다.
RNS는 귀하의 IP 주소를 사용하여 약관 준수 여부를 확인하고, 귀하가 이 커뮤니케이션에 포함된 정보를 사용하는 방식을 분석하고, 그러한 분석을 익명으로 다른 사람과 상용 서비스의 일부로 공유할 수 있습니다. RNS와 런던 증권 거래소가 귀하가 제공한 개인 데이터를 사용하는 방법에 대한 자세한 내용은 개인 정보 보호 정책을 참조하십시오.