AGRA lobbies private sector to invest in agriculture
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has appealed to private sector players to consider capitalizing on the existing opportunities in the agriculture sector and make various investments.
AGRA Country Director Sophie Chitedze made the remarks recently during the launch of the Malawi Agribusiness Deal Room under the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2021.
Chitedze said agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and there is a need for the private sector to play a part in making sure that the country is developing in terms of agribusiness.
According to Chitedze, the importance of agriculture to African countries including Malawi cannot be overemphasized and as such the private sector should look into this as a potential area that can boost their financial muscles.
“Malawi’s economy will continue to depend on agriculture for the foreseeable future. As unlike her neighbors who have other sectors in priority, Malawi’s priority number one remains agriculture. We, therefore, have excellent reasons for us to worry when we cannot invest as much in a sector that drives our lives,” she said.
However, Chitedze said AGRA also recognizes that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.
The National Planning Commission Senior Development Planning Specialist, Maxwell Maida, echoed Chitedze’s sentiments, saying there is a huge space in the agriculture sector that government alone cannot manage to fill.
Maida made reference to Chipoka Port Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development project, which will soon commerce and will need more investors.
He said the project is conceptualized to maximize the potential the fisheries and aquaculture sector has for sustainable economic and social transformation.
“Fisheries and aquaculture present significant opportunities to contribute towards economic growth and sustainable development,” He said
Among others, the project will advance fisheries and aquaculture sector through the development of an industrial and logistical national centre and promote the vertical integration of activities across related value chains.
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You don’t tell the private sector what to do. Private sector will automatically invest where it makes sense. What need to be done is to create a conducive environment for them. otherwise, most of the policies in the agricultural sector are not market oriented and discourages inestment
That’s the wrong mindset to always think that agriculture has to be the backbone of Malawi’s economy. Malawi should emphasize on knowledge to create things of value for export like tyres, electronics, refrigerators, smartphones,radios and televisions, pharmaceuticals, batteries etc. The country has natural resources to enable research into production of such high value products. Agriculture has to compliment such industrial products. Malawi can not attain middle income status if it continues to rely on agriculture alone. Mind you, Zambia is a mineral producing country, but its proceeds from agricultural products are more than two times Malawi’s and yet agriculture is… Read more »