President Chakwera in Mangochi on Sunday
By Kondwani Magombo, MANA
President Lazarus Chakwera says farmers in the country do not realize enough money from their agricultural produce due to rushed sales which compromise quality.
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Thus he says, his administration would lay out some measures to ensure that the country produces quality agricultural produce for export.
He made the remarks on Sunday afternoon in Mangochi, saying the problem is that “everyone is free to buy or sell crop produce most of which is bought before they mature”.
“As a result, most of the produce rot in storage, failing short of meeting export standards. We want to put good measures to enable us to export our produce for us to make more money and live a better life.”
Chakwera observed that if Malawians could be exporting quality produce, they could create jobs for themselves and others.
He urged people in Mangochi to live in harmony irrespective of their different leanings in the society, adding that his leadership’s priority is that every Malawian should have equal opportunities in all social needs, including food.
Last month, Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM) revealed that through capacity building and technical support that this government project empowers rural smallholder and medium scale food crop farmers, they are now earning better returns than before.
At a business breakfast at Marriott Ryalls Hotel in Blantyre that AGCOM organised to interface with farm produce buyers in order to forge a fruitful partnership, National Coordinator Teddie Nakhumwa said the US$95 million project from a World Bank loan facility, brings farmers to form cooperatives in a which the government funds specific projects that aims at enhancing value added productions.
The cooperatives are trained in business management and when they identify their needs, AGCOM provides 70% of funding and the farmers contribute the 30%.
Most of the cooperatives are now able to add value to their produce through proper farming equipment such as tractors and processing machines.
Nakhumwa said the farmers fetch better prices when they process their produce for the market — both sold locally and exported.
The value chains were designed taking cognizance that Malawi’s small scale farms operate alongside large agricultural estates and a growing number of medium scale farms yet the country’s agriculture production generally fails to meet growing demand from domestic and export markets.
Nakhumwa said the farmers are now inspired to think beyond the box on value added farming processes in order to produce more and better commodities.
The AGCOM project now has a national coverage targeting all districts aiming to support over 100,000 farming households and buyers, under the system called Productive Alliance.
The value chains are not determined in advance but designed to the market to decide which value chains and buyers have strong prospective commercial linkages both for domestic consumption and export.
Other cooperatives are doing irrigation farming and so far 20 irrigation schemes have been rehabilitated totaling over 2,000 hectares in Dedza, Thyolo, Phalombe, Machinga, Zomba, Mulanje and Chiradzulu.
These irrigation cooperatives are farming are increasing potential harvest volumes of rice, beans, horticulture, green maize amongst others.
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The government is set to create an enabling business environment through various regulative and policy reforms that affect agricultural trade such as gazetting of Warehouse Receipt Act to improve access to finance and licensing of commodity exchanges under Reserve Bank of Malawi directive to ensure structured markets are regulated and act within their scope.
It also encompasses streamlining an industry approach in restrictions of imports and exports through gazetting of Control of Goods Act regulations.
Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) shall be capacitated to attain international accreditation in various scopes for certification purposes, including construction of secondary lab in Lilongwe.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
