By Salome Gangire

Neno, March 25, Mana: Chief Education Officer for Neno, Sonnex Likharuwe, has challenged teachers in the district to improve the pass rate in national examinations to put Neno among top five performing districts at national level.

He was speaking over the weekend at the community hall during the 2023 Neno Best Teachers Awards Day held under the theme “Promoting quality education”.

He said with teamwork, cordial relationship between school authorities, communities and school structures, it is possible to produce best results and be among the top five.

“We have the human resource here and schools which did not achieve a 100 percent pass rate should learn from their colleagues who performed well,” Likharuwe added.

He said Neno was improving in its national examinations performance as it scoped 83.4 percent in last year’s Primary School Leaving Certificates of education (PSLCE) examinations.

Likharuwe said it was pleasing that 17 schools scooped 100 percent pass rate which is very commendable.

He, therefore, reminded teachers of adherence to the teacher’s code of conduct by not abusing a girl child saying the penalty is dismal.

District Commissioner for Neno, Rosemary Nawasha, thanked teachers and head teachers whose schools performed well in last year’s examinations.

She said development without education is nothing as such it starts with a teacher hence the need for teachers to dedicate themselves to their job.

“As a district council, we are also measured by how we are doing our service delivery one of which is education. Your performance has given Neno a mark at national level because this shows that the district is improving its education service delivery,” Nawasha said.

She told the teachers that the rewards they received were a token of appreciation to motivate them for the sacrifice they do as some work in hard to reach areas.

Nawasha, therefore, thanked Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO), World Vision and Member of Parliament for Neno North, Thoko Tembo, for contributing towards the event.

EGENCO Senior Human Resources Officer, Gift Phulanya Ulanda, said as an education partner, they recognise the invaluable contribution that teachers play in shaping the minds and futures of the nation’s youths.

“Teachers play a pivotal role in nurturing creativity and instilling knowledge in the minds of students,” Ulanda said.

Teachers whose students got as were rewarded with K50,000 cash, best performing schools who scooped 100 percent pass rate were awarded with K100,000, and best Primary Education Advisors were awarded with K100,000.

By Manasse Nyirenda

Rumphi, March 24, Mana: Mzuzu Agriculture Development Division (ADD) has urged farmers in Rumphi district to priorities crop diversification in order to promote food security and improve nutrition among farming households in the district.

The division's Deputy Program Manager, Anderson Chikomola, disclosed this Friday on the sidelines of an agriculture field day which the division, together with Rumphi District Agriculture Extension Coordinating Committee (DAECC), held at Kawaza Primary School ground in Bolero Extension Planning Area (EPA).

Chikomola said crop diversification will help farmers adapt to adverse effects of climate change that has made the country experience some rainfall breaks and cyclones that have affected the agriculture sector.

“Farmers should be able to cultivate different crops which will help them have balanced diet. This is crucial because they will rely on other crops when others fail and will be able to be resilient and make farming a business,” he said.

Chairperson for Rumphi District Council, Councillor Harry Mnyenyembe, said agriculture field days are important because they help in making crop estimates and help farmers draw important lessons on agriculture production.

One of the farmers, Florence Nkhonjera, who grows banana and rears pigs encouraged fellow women to be economically independent and not solely rely on their husbands.

“It is important for women to engage in farming because we are mothers and we have huge responsibilities of keeping our families. We, therefore, don’t need to solely depend on our husbands who also have other responsibilities,” he said.

This year’s agricultural field day was commemorated under the theme ‘Building rural communities resilience through agricultural diversification and Agri business development.’

By Tawonga Moyo

Mzuzu, March 24, Mana: Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC), in conjunction with Centre for Solutions Journalism, has drilled journalists under Nyika Media Club in the northern region, on reporting Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues.

The one-day orientation workshop held on Friday in Mzuzu was aimed at boarding journalists’ knowledge on what the law says on issues pertaining to SRHR.

MHRCC Project Manager, Enock Chinkhuntha, said they thought it wise to orient journalists on SRHR issues so that women and girls understand their right to health.

“We brought this project to journalists in the Northern Region so that we move together as we promote social justice especially among women and girls who fail to realize their health rights to the fullest.

“Many women and girls are finding themselves succumbing to unsafe abortions with others left with deformities in the process. We want journalists to understand various issues on SRHR so it helps them in their reporting,” said Chinkhutha.

According to Chinkhutha, in 2023, Malawi registered about 35,000 cases of unsafe abortion, which he described as unfortunate.

He, therefore, called upon members of parliament to hold a round table discussion on the magnitude of the problem.

Coordinator for Post Abortion Care for Mzimba North, Justine Mwafulirwa, said most women in rural communities go through dangerous methods of terminating pregnancy which results in grave consequences.

"A 2022 study by IPAS Malawi showed that 3,395 cases of abortion were inducted in public hospitals. Women, especially those in rural areas, resolt to drinking concoctions or insert objects inorder to terminate a pregnancy.

"This results in the introduction of bacteria in the body and health complications such as damage to the womb. They usually come to the hospital when it's already too late to save the situation," said Mwafulirwa.

Chairperson for Nyika Media Club, Feston Malekezo, thanked MHRCC for organizing the workshop saying, as journalists, they will now be able to write with informed minds having heard from various experts in different fields such as legal and health.

The orientation falls under Breaking the Barriers Project that the two organizations and other partners are implementing in the country with funds from United Kingdom based Amplify Change.

By Robert Katuli

Lilongwe, March 24, Mana: When it comes to Malawi’s major exports, agriculture, especially on the farm produce side, has always been the mainstay. The exports from this sector include tobacco, tea, sugar, cotton, macadamia nuts, rice and groundnuts, among others.

While tobacco, tea and cane sugar together have been known to generate over 70 percent of export earnings (tobacco alone has been providing over 60 percent of foreign exchange earnings), it has not been the case with the other exports.

The country has, for a long time, been losing a lot of forex, as some traders have been taking advantage of lack of structured markets for farm produce like beans, maize, cowpeas, groundnuts, and soya beans and use other illegal means to export the commodities.

It is against such background that government introduced Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA)-controlled export warehouses last year to curb tax evasion and smuggling of farm produce.

Government amended some sections in the Customs and Excise Act, and one of the amendments requires exporters of some farm produce to export their goods through prescribed warehouses in line with the law.

With this law, government has ensured that all farm produce exit the country by following the right procedures and that exporters reconcile the forex with the Reserve Bank of Malawi. For exporters who go against this provision, there is punishment, in accordance with the law.

President Lazarus Chakwera, in this year’s state of the nation address he delivered on February 09, reiterated his administration’s quest to control the loss of forex from farm produce export proceeds.

“To ensure the repatriation of foreign exchange earned from produce exported from Malawi, my administration has restricted export licenses to selected commodities and to those exporters that use MRA bonded warehouses,” he said.

This export warehousing process entails storing goods in a warehouse for a certain period of time. The goods are inspected before being exported.

According to MRA head of corporate affairs Steven Kapoloma, more businesses are now coming to the Authority to get license to own and operate the export warehouses.

In the central region alone, more than 70 of such warehouses are operating, exporting farm produce like groundnuts, soya beans and rice, among others.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of people that want to own and operate export warehouses. Because those that were the pioneers of these export warehouses have reaped the benefits, more people are coming into their warehouses and using them to export,” said Kapoloma during a recent tour to some of the export warehouses in Lilongwe.

The warehouses initiative, says Kapoloma, has improved the process of tracking the farm produce export proceeds, from buying the commodities from the farms all the way to exporting them through the borders.

“We are able to track the movement of the produce from the farm gate to export warehouses all the way to exporting outside this country.

“We are able to track the quantities as they are getting into the warehouses and as they are getting out. This is a very good control measure as far as proceeds of our exports are concerned,” he adds.

Before introducing the export warehouses, according to MRA’s Lilongwe Exports Station Manager Queen Nkhata, most farm produce were frequently being smuggled out of the country.

“We have really improved with this new initiative put in place. Previously it (exporting farm produce) was not as controlled as it is. Farm produce were just taken out of the country without proper arrangements.

“With these new procedures, we are now controlling these farm produce from customs controlled warehouses. So, we are seeing some improvements and we are sure that we'll do even better,” Nkhata says.

Apart from what Nkhata is saying, that these export warehouses are helping to curb illegal exportation of farm produce, the warehouses are also, as Kapoloma has already indicated, benefitting the operators.

James Nyasulu is warehouse manager for African Commodities Trading in Lilongwe, and he hails the warehouse initiative, saying it has raised their business to higher standards.

“Before the export warehouses, our standards were a bit low because we didn't have time to grade the products.

“But with the export warehouses, we now have time to bring in the commodities, grade them and then export them,” he says, adding that their commodities have never been turned down for quality reasons, as it used to be the case before the warehouses were introduced.

Rachel Banda, an accountant at Giant Sprouts Ltd, an Exports and Imports company that owns a groundnuts export warehouse along the Bypass Road in Lilongwe, concurs with Nyasulu, waxing lyrical about the warehouses.

She says: “Before the warehouses, we could not take good care of our products like the way we do now. There was no proper security, and there was a lot of damage to the goods; we were making losses.

"But with the warehouse, there has never been a time when we lost any goods. The quantity that we bring in is the same quantity that we export. And we stock huge quantities because of the warehouse. So, the warehouse is helping us a lot.”

Of course MRA is encouraging farm produce exporters in the country to export their goods through these customs controlled warehouses for revenue collection purposes. This is in addition to protecting forex.

According to MRA, farm produce is among the goods most smuggled from the country. It, therefore, makes a lot of sense to put proper mechanisms in place to guard against the vice.

With good measures in place, the outlook for proceeds to be realized from exporting farm produce looks bright.

Speaking to the media when he toured Gala Macadamia Farm (Gala Macs) in Lilongwe on Wednesday last week, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said exporting macadamia nuts has potential to generate a lot of revenue for the country.

Through Gala Macs alone, said Kawale, it is expected that US$30 million can be generated annually through exporting the commodity. For this reason, government intends to empower more farmers to embark on macadamia farming for export purposes.

This is the sort of potential that government, through MRA, is trying to protect through the export warehouses.

However, after restricting export licenses to farm produce exporters who use MRA bonded warehouses, which is what President Chakwera says his administration has done, perhaps it is high time government rather focused on more ways of incentivizing this kind of exporters.

These should be ways on top of what the Ministry of Trade sometimes does by coming in to help traders secure export markets for their commodities. This can be done better, with well-structured mechanisms in place, and in a more coordinated way.

A lot surely needs to be done by all stakeholders to ensure that those trading in exporting the country’s farm produce embrace the customs controlled warehouse initiative, which has proved beneficial to both government and traders.