Malawi has potential of growing the economy through agriculture

Salima, December 5, Mana: National Coordinator for the Global Program on Skills and ProAgro Youth Project in Malawi, Patrick Makondetsa, says Malawi has the potential to grow its economy through agriculture but need to organize the system within the farming management.

He was speaking in an interview on Thursday after a team from the International Labour Organization (ILO) under his project visited selected farms in Salima District.

He said there is need to support smallholder farmers to transition from informal to formal sector and also for them to have required skills within the farm management in order to have standard produce to sale.

“With better skills we can be able to practically provide the necessary support to farms in anticipation of the agriculture mechanization so that our farming institutions have people with necessary skills that will increase productivity with the farms and be able to produce for local buyers and even export some produce,” he said.

He further explained that they will strengthen the partnership that ILO has with TEVETA and that they have already started the work integrated learning to support farming institutions to have capacity of having well and capable farm managers.

In an interview with one of the farmers in the district, owner of Za Fresh Farms, Lucius Nkhoma says since he started farming in 2018 for both crops and animals, he has achieved a lot and his life has changed after gaining knowledge from the integrated learning trainings that ILO had with them years back.

“Our cooperation with the International Labour Organization is good as we started working with them when this farm started operational. So together with other farmers who were growing different crops but lacked skills and knowledge, we learnt on how best to embrace modern farming.

“We were taught that buyers especially those who buy in bulk like hotels and resort require standard and quality farm produce and the training assisted us to change our way of farming. Thus, the project assisted us to be recognized by others and not just the community,” said Nkhoma.

Nkhoma said previously he and other farmers targeted the surrounding communities to sale their produce and they did not have enough after selling as supply was more compared to demand. he said they ended up losing, but thanks to the skills and knowledge gained under the Global Program on Skills and Lifelong learning as they know what and when to produce.

“Our market used to only target the nearby community but after the skills gained we discovered that we can spread our market base, so currently we sale our produce to Livingstonia Hotel, Sigelege Beach resort, Boabab Lodge just to mention a few,” said Nkhoma.

Za Fresh farm boasts of more than 20 acres of land and according to Nkhoma the crops that he plants include maize, rice, watermelon, tomatoes, onions, all types of peppers and he rear goats, pigs, local breed and chicken.

The team also visited Corporate Institute of Horticulture where small scale farmers are learning modern farming techniques. Co- founder and owner of the institute Dickson Banda says they have taught more farmers in the districts and outside. He said many of the farmers have formed cooperatives where people are working in groups to produce more.

“Our institution is doing a lot to ensure that small scale farmers are well equipped and that they have the necessary skills. We have started greenhouse farming and we are hoping to have more so that we teach farmers how to use this and the benefits,” he said.

The Global Program on Skills and lifelong Learning promotes lifelong learning as a way to help people and societies adapt to a changing world.