* You that claim to be educated do not want to do the same but want to be in offices
* Malawians need to invest more in agriculture as it is the driving force of our economy
* I am impressed with the agricultural products that we have as a country — indeed, Malawi is very wealthy
MANA & Maravi Express
In emphasising on the need to exploit opportunities in the agriculture sector as a key factor to accelerating Malawi’s economic growth, President Lazarus Chakwera gave an example that even the richest people in the world, such as technology billionaire, Bill Gates, invest their money into farming.
Advertisement
The President said this in Lilongwe yesterday during the official opening of the Agriculture Investment Conference at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC), saying Malawi’s economic growth depends on agriculture — hence the need to invest more in the sector.
“Agriculture is for everyone; richest people like Bill Gates invest their money into farming and you that claim to be educated do not want to do the same but want to be in offices,” Chakwera said.
“Malawians need to invest more in agriculture as it is the driving force of our economy. I am impressed with the agricultural products that we have as a country — indeed, Malawi is very wealthy.”
He condemned the “primitive kind of thinking where people consider agriculture is for the rural and poor people” — thus he gave an example of Bill Gates, who was recently discovered to have invested over US$113 million on Nebraska Farmland.
A report by Flatwater Free Press published in January, 2024, says Nebraska’s business records show that Willowdale Farms, Merrick County Farms, Dove Haven Ranch, Champion Valley Farm, Schroder Family Farms, have one similarity — “each farm’s office address leads to a single-storey brick building in the St. Louis suburbs, an office park housing a dentist, lawyers and, until recently, a farmland investment startup called AgCoA.
“For years, AgCoA was owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a government-owned group managing the retirement funds of 21 million Canadians,” says the report.
“But in 2017, the Canadian board decided to offload a half-billion-dollar chunk of its American farmland portfolio — including all 22,830 acres of its Nebraska land.
“The buyer of those unassuming-sounding Nebraska farms wasn’t publicly listed. Until now, the financial details of the transaction and the gargantuan loan he’s taken out against it have remained publicly unknown — the buyer’s name: Bill Gates.”
The billionaire who co-founded Microsoft also established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and according to its website, it emphasizes that “agriculture is the main source of income for several hundred million people around the world who struggle with poverty and hunger — most of whom are connected to small-scale, or smallholder farms-plots of land roughly the size of a soccer pitch or American football field”.
“We invest in agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia because research shows that growth in the agricultural sector is the most effective way to reduce poverty and hunger,” says the website.
“Smallholder farmers in these regions, who collectively supply most of the population’s food, are incredibly resourceful in the face of challenges but need new options for sustainably producing and selling a wide array of crop and livestock products, especially as climate change rapidly intensifies the stresses they face.
“Evidence shows that with the right kinds of support, smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia can tap the power of food production to create a better life for their families and improve their communities while providing local consumers with reliable access to healthy, affordable food.
“Our investments in agriculture play an important role in the Foundation’s broader effort to empower women and girls with economic opportunities.
A young man impressively engages Chakwera on his involvement in agriculture
Thus Chakwera’s emphasis for mindset change for Malawians to invest more in agriculture as the driving force of the economy and he appealed to the youths, as well as women, to join hands and combine their smaller scale farms into mega farms which promotes the use of mechanisation.
He also encouraged Malawians not only to depend on rain-fed agriculture but also venture into irrigation farming.
On his part, Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale concurred with President Chakwera that agriculture plays a pivotal role in stimulation of economic growth: “Our task is to make sure that agriculture sector thrives in increasing production for domestic use and import substitution through agro processing — that it is mechanised thereby generating forex for the country.”
The two-day conference runs under two objectives of attracting any Malawian with farm land above five hectares to invest in commercial farming by introducing them to various profitable agriculture value chains and supporting services including financing and viable off taker markets, among others.—Written by Eunice Disi, MANA and edited by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
Advertisement