Government, World Bank signs USD 45 million AGCOM phase-2 program

Lilongwe, February 26, Mana: The World Bank and the Malawi Government have signed a USD45 million (MK80 billion) grant agreement for the implementation of Phase 2 of the Malawi Food Systems Resilience Program under the Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM) project.

The grant, sourced from a multi-donor trust fund, is funded by Norway, Ireland, the European Union, and the Government of Flanders.

Speaking on Wednesday during the signing ceremony at Capital Hill in Lilongwe, World Bank Country Manager for Malawi, Firas Raad, said the Multi-Donor-Trust funds aim to increase resilience of food systems and the country’s preparedness for food insecurity in project areas and respond to crisis or emergencies.

Raad said the additional funding has come following the successful implementation of AGCOM 1 which focused on resilience of food systems and the country's preparedness for food insecurity.

“We decided to mobilize this support for this program, particularly due to the successful implementation of AGCOM 1. So, this funding will promote the Agricultural commercialization agenda and scale up ongoing activities but also finance new activities to achieve productivity and economic growth,” said Raad.

The Minister of Finance, Simplex Chithyola Banda, described the grant as an economic breather towards achieving productivity to alleviate poverty among Malawians.

He said as government they have Public Financial Management Act and hence they will ensure that the money is put to good use to serve its purpose.

“We are very happy as Malawians to have signed the additional financing to AGCOM 2, from the multi-donor Trust Fund, led by the World Bank, coming from EU, Norway, Ireland and Flanders government.

“This will be implemented by Ministry of Agriculture through AGCOM. It is a matter of commercializing Agriculture, focusing on productivity and over 100,000 farmers will benefit. This support has also gone well with the ATM strategy which is a fundamental pillar towards growth,” said Chithyola.

Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale thanked the world bank and other donors, Ireland, Norway, EU and Flanders for the support towards the agricultural sector.

He said Malawi is facing huge climate change impacts that calls for action and hence the support from the donors through AGCOM is timely.

“The support will empower over 60,000 farmers and increased to over 40 percent yield and promoted agricultural reforms in the first phase. It will further rehabilitate over 60,000 hectares of land from farmers.

“Today, AGCOM 2, will expand climate smart irrigation to ensure all year farming for 100,000 farmers, Drug resistance seeds, Link farmers to markets through unlocking value chains, agricultural technologies, processes and value addition and inclusivity for women and youths,” said Kawale.

He added that as a Minister, he will ensure accountability of the resources and provide real time monitoring to ensure all funds are used prudently so that in the end, there will be no Malawians to die of hunger.

Kawale said the Ministry will also engage private sectors such as banks to provide farmers with friendly soft loans to transform the agricultural sector and make agriculture a commercial entity.

The AGCOM phase 2 project will target over 100, 000 households (approximately 700, 000) beneficiaries.

The AGCOM project was launched in 2023 and will run up to 2029 with a total funding of USD 326 million.