Category: Agriculture

* The farmers are now inspired to think beyond the box on value added farming processes to produce more and better commodities By Duncan Mlanjira Through capacity building and technical support that Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM) project empowers rural smallholder and medium scale food crop farmers, they are now earning better returns than before. This was said by AGCOM’s National Coordinator Teddie Nakhumwa at a business breakfast at Marriott Ryalls Hotel in Blantyre on Friday that Ministry of Trade and…

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* Food crop buyers would be signing an off-take agreement to regulate the market for mutual benefits By Duncan Mlanjira Most of the country’s smallholder and medium scale food crop produce, livestock and fisheries farmers do not benefit from their toil because they are exploited by buyers since the market is not regulated by the government just as is the system in the tobacco industry. Thus, through interventions from various government Ministries and agencies, Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM) is working…

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Soya beans is one of raw materials for manufacture of cooking oil * Raw materials the industry needs include soya beans, groundnuts, sunflower, olives and others * This follows controversy over the 16.5% value added tax (VAT) which government re-introduced last year * Current price increase of refined cooking oil is due to global price of imported crude oil By Duncan Mlanjira Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) Executive Director, John Kapito has suggested that perhaps the cooking oil manufacturers…

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Chakwera and the First Lady admiring the green gold * It is high time the country explored other crops like industrial hemp to replace tobacco * The future for the tobacco industry looks bleak because of international anti-smoking lobbies * The knock on effect of this as a country is that every year, the backbone of our economy grows weaker By Yamikani Sabola, MANA President Lazarus Chakwera says the country needs to transition from a tobacco-based economy and has…

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Industrial hemp * 41 applications were received, only six have not made it * They are expected to address a few issues and then re-submit By Tione Andsen, MANA Farmer organizations, cooperatives and corporate partnerships have adequately met the requirements which earned them licences to venture into industrial hemp (cannabis) business. On Friday, Cannabis Regulatory Authority (CRA) issued licences to 35 organizations following an exhaustive evaluation process as provided for in the Cannabis Regulation Act 2020. At a press…

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Chakwera poses with AGRA Malawi president  * Applauds success of farm Affordable Inputs Programme which Chakwera launched in 2020 * It has already reached 3.7 million smallholder farmers who could hardly access fertilizer and improved seed * Agriculture accounts for 42% of Malawi’s GDP and the AIP was rolled out to help drive the country’s economy * Malawi is on the right path towards achieving an inclusive agriculture transformation By Duncan Mlanjira The Board chairperson for the Alliance for…

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