An NGO has set up a free digital map to try and connect people with local farms and farmers.

On Monday, Friends of the Earth Malta launched its Malta Farm Map to encourage people to buy their fruit and vegetables from inside Malta, rather than abroad. 

The map is also aimed at helping producers who want to sell their products directly to customers, without including any third-party.

"We receive a lot of requests from our members asking us about which farmers sell their local produce directly," says FoEM Director Martin Galea De Giovanni. "Through this map we want to consolidate a direct sales platform for agriculture producers and customers to know how and where to purchase products and services from local farms. Our motivation is to bridge the distance between small and local producers and the people."

Nastia Caruana Finkel, Project Coordinator at FoEM, added: “Farmers put a lot of work and passion into growing food and we want citizens to get a glimpse of that."

"We are now urging people to login to www.foemalta.org/maltafarmmap in order to locate their nearest friendly farmer and buy their fresh local produce directly from them. In that way they will be supporting the local farming community which had already been struggling even before the current COVID-19 crisis."

Local farmers have said that they have seen a "massive reduction in sales" in recent weeks, with many hawkers not equipped for home deliveries and open-air markets all but shut down due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.