Lilongwe June 2, Mana: The World Bank has approved US$265 million (approximately K265 billion) to scale up agriculture commercialisation and improve the Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) for Eastern and Southern Africa financing countries including Comoros, Kenya, Somalia, Madagascar, Tanzania and Malawi.

The program will scale up many of the successful interventions and approaches of Malawi’s Agricultural Commercialisation Project (AGCOM) as a means of enhancing national and regional food systems as well as support to the authorities to implement resilience enhancing policy reforms.

The FSRP for Eastern and Southern Africa has already committed close to US$1.7 billion in the first three phases of its program saying countries such as Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Somalia and Tanzania are being joined by the African Union Commission (AUC) with more countries expected to join.

In a statement released by World Bank in Lilongwe on Friday, World Bank Country Manager for Malawi, Hugh Riddel says AGCOM is delivering on Malawi 2063 core goal of agricultural transformation saying Malawi has an opportunity to scale this intervention nationally and collaborate and learn how to tackle food systems resilience with other participating countries in the region.

“Developing viable and sustainable value chains is key to national food security as well as boosting foreign exchange for the country’s broader economic needs,” he says.

Minister of Agriculture, Sam Dalitso Kawale said agriculture is the main stay of Malawi’s economy and any investments made, including strengthening food security, and with lessons learnt from AGCOM, Malawi is expected to scale up some interventions within the new project which will likely have a great impact on the overall economy.

Minister of Finance, Sosten Gwengwe said the new phase of the project gives Malawians confidence that they have the capacity and ability to deliver results that have potential to transform the lives.

Gwengwe assured World Bank that Malawi will continue to undertake actions and policy reforms so that it sustain the economic transformation efforts saying the major investment that the World Bank is making in agriculture transformation is for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) development, and export promotion and facilitation.

The World Bank project in Malawi will also prioritise building climate-resilient infrastructure that is designed and built in a way that anticipates, prepares for, and adapts to changing climate conditions since Malawi currently depends largely on rain-fed agriculture.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) established in 1960 helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives.

Mana/tnm/pk