Pyxus targets 10 000 contracted farmers in its first season

Pyxus Agriculture Limited (Malawi), a company aimed at value-addition of agricultural products especially legumes says it is targeting to incorporate about 10,000 farmers in its first growing season in groundnuts, sunflower and beans farming.

Managing Director  for Pyxus Agriculture Limited Malawi, Ron Ngwira told journalists during a press briefing in Lilongwe that the first growing season follows various value addition mechanisms to a number of legumes which the farmers will be producing so that they should be getting enough profits at the end of every farming season.

 “We would want to achieve our vision of transforming people’s lives by utilizing our agricultural expertise by among others strengthening our relationship with our contracted farmers and continue to pursue production of high quality agricultural products to provide to our customers through these farmers,” said Ngwira.

According to Ngwira, Pyxus has so far invested about $11 million as a base in its first operational year adding that the company is also aiming to invest $50 million in the next five years in processing and production initiatives.

Ngwira further explained that so far they are targeting about 50,000 metric tons of groundnuts from its contracted smallholder farmers during this growing season which will be value added and processed for international markets.

“We are looking at diversification and yield improvements of various legume crops especially groundnuts, Sunflower and beans among others which at the end of the day should give better profits to our contracted farmers,” said Ngwira.

Ngwira said the company will be helping the contracted smallholder farmers with access to loans from some local commercial banks as well as providing extension and processing services to the farmers which also forms part of the value addition mechanism.

The Pyxus Managing Director also disclosed that so far they are targeting all interested farmers from Ntcheu  in the central region up to Rumphi  District in the northern region where the already 10,000 contracted farmers are also coming from.

At present, Pyxus Agriculture Limited have five business areas as in direct farming, smallholder production, groundnuts production, crop service and Biomass. It is also involved in reforestation programs

On direct farming, the company engages in the large scale commercial production of various crops as well as seed multiplication and also engages in the research and development of crop and agriculture technologies for improving crop production of both our smallholder and commercial farming.

The business segment in smallholder production provides farmers with access to credit, inputs delivery and extension services to improve farmers’ agricultural knowledge while groundnuts  production is to engage in value adding, high quality and traceable for domestic, regional and international markets.

The company’s crop service delivery provides in-field support from planning to production and delivery to market of compliant tobacco and other crops according to customer requirements and specifications in a sustainable manner, by implementing good agricultural programs in labour, environment and crop production.