In a bid to invigorate agri-businesses and bolster productivity for global markets, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale distributed checks totaling K6.5 billion to 41 cooperatives across 13 districts nationwide. This initiative, part of the government’s flagship program Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM) 2, backed by the World Bank, aims to shift smallholder agriculture from subsistence to commercial ventures.
Addressing the cooperative members at Malembo in Senior Chief Nankumba’s area in Mangochi, Kawale expressed his enthusiasm at witnessing the tangible strides towards agricultural transformation as outlined in Malawi’s 2063 Agenda. He highlighted the government’s vision to elevate smallholder farmers to a level where they can reap substantial benefits from their agricultural endeavors, marking a departure from years of mere subsistence farming practices.
‘‘The Vision 2063 clearly talks about agricultural mechanization, increase in productivity, as well as having a very vibrant export market and through empowering farmers with grants, we believe that help in reaching that goal,’’ he added.
‘‘Through AGCOM, we want to see that our farmers are transformed into commercial and that is why over K600 billion is going to be invested into cooperatives in the coming few years,’’ said Kawale.
Kawale added that through programmes like AGCOM as well as mega farms initiatives, Malawi will soon be food secure and will generate enough income.
National Project Coordinator for AGCOM, Dr. Ted Nakhumwa encouraged communities across the country to apply for the grant, by forming value addition groups of 20 members each.
Nakhumwa said that through AGCOM 1, which phased out last year, livelihoods of most farmers in the country have tremendously improved.
Before the handover ceremony, Kawale also toured Mlambe Irrigation Scheme, under the Greenbelt Authority, which is amongst the mega farm initiative, where government intends to do commercial irrigation farming of close to 800 hectares.
