JB says ‘one cow per family’ to benefit 1m families in Malawi
President Joyce Banda says she wants at least one million families to benefit from the One Dairy Cow per Family’ project, which seeks to bail Malawians out of abject poverty.
Speaking at Traditional Authority Kalolo Headquarters in Namitete in Lilongwe during the launch of the project on hunger and poverty eradication alongside her Mozambican counterpart Armando Guebuza, Banda said she has placed poverty and hunger reduction as her main priority saying it the only way the country can eradicate poverty among Malawians.
“This the time for poor families to own a dairy cow so that in the long run can come out of poverty,” said Banda.
The two leaders on Thursday also launched “Two Crops per Year through Irrigation” project aimed at reducing food shortage in the country.
The projects will be coordinated by Presidential Initiative on Poverty and Hunger in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Green Belt Initiative and Ministry of Water Development and Irrigation.
Government also will promote wide-scale irrigation farming in order to stop dependency on rain-fed crop production.
“This will contribute to food security both at household as well as national level apart from increasing household incomes,” she said.
Earlier, Banda and Guebuza launched a Malawi-Mozambique Business Forum aimed at sharing business information between the two neighbouring countries.
The forum will also enhance business opportunities and trade in various sectors such as agriculture, tourism, mining, infrastructure development and logistics distribution, among others.
