AGRA Eyes Soybeans and Groundnuts to Help Malawi Break Free from Tobacco Dependence

Malawi could double its export revenues within the next decade by shifting from tobacco to high-potential crops such as soybeans, groundnuts, and horticulture, a senior official at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said.

Jonathan Said, AGRA’s Vice President and Head of its Centre of Technical Expertise, told Nyasa Times after a recent visit that Malawi has “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to restructure its agriculture sector and reduce its heavy reliance on tobacco and tea for foreign exchange.

“Soybeans and groundnuts have the potential to be larger than tobacco in terms of forex earnings and to create youth work opportunities on a large scale,” Said explained. “If Malawi can coordinate across government, private sector and farmer groups, export revenue could double in the next 5–10 years.”

AGRA is already working with the Ministry of Agriculture and private sector partners to boost crop research and breeding, strengthen regulations such as the Seed Law, and support Malawi’s Mega Farms initiative, which could transform both food security and exports.

The organisation is also pushing for stronger value chains in soy and groundnuts, linking farmers to agro-processors who can produce cooking oil, soy milk, peanut butter, baby food, animal feed, and even industrial emulsifiers.

“These value chains are critical not just for export earnings, but also for nutrition, soil health, women’s empowerment and climate adaptation,” Said noted.

AGRA’s strategy rests on three pillars:

• Mega farms (20–100 hectares) serving as nucleus farms with outgrower schemes to connect smallholders to finance, inputs and markets.
• Growth poles or anchor firms linking farmers to banks and consumer demand.
• Seed reforms to tackle shortages of high-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties.

“You cannot have commercialization and agro-industrialisation without anchor firms,” Said stressed. “And you cannot build competitive value chains without fixing seed supply.”

Youth are also a central focus. Through the Mastercard Foundation–funded Youth Empowerment in Agribusiness and Food Systems Framework (YEFFA) and the Norway-supported Malawi Agricultural Cluster Initiative, AGRA has mobilised hundreds of thousands of young people into farmer groups, trained them, and connected them to land, finance and agro-processors.

Said, who once served as an economic advisor in Malawi’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (2011–2014), believes the presidency must play a central convening role in driving this transformation.

“The presidency has the power to align actors and keep focus on solving bottlenecks in extension, seeds, digitalisation, mechanisation and finance,” he said. “We’ve seen glimpses of this through the President’s Delivery Unit and the National Planning Commission, but it needs to be accelerated.”

Despite challenges such as climate change and volatile global markets, Said is upbeat:

“Malawi has all the ingredients. With leadership, focus and coordination, agriculture can finally become the engine of inclusive growth that Malawians have long been waiting for.”

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