Tobacco farmers in the country have rebuffed a newly imposed Integrated Production System (IPS), introduced recently to sell the crop, saying it’s dangerous. The system allows farmers to grow tobacco only on contract basis with the government. A petition has since been presented to government. One of the signees of the petition Akunkwindira Mpinganjira said […]
Browsing through an article by a guest journalist J. Bradford Delong published in the ‘Daily Times’ of the 7th of January entitled ‘Try Everything’ several issues left me introspective and reflecting. However what crossed my mind most was the spelling out by renowned economists of doom for the global economy that might incidentally be headed […]
Monsanto Malawi, one of the country’s leading seed companies, on Tuesday donated maize seed worth K80 million to people of Mwanje Village in Chiradzulu after intense flooding destroyed their fields and crops and threatening local food security. The company which was represented by the acting country manager Dalitso Gadama donated 80 metric tons of the […]
Prompt access to seeds and livestock will help reboot local food production Farmers in southern Malawi urgently need seeds and livestock after intense flooding destroyed their fields and homes, washing away animals and crops and threatening local food security. More than 170,000 people have had to leave their homes. Some 79 deaths have been confirmed […]
Bettie Kawonga says business incubators for diary farmers can provide livelihoods for young people in Malawi, and the World Food Prize agrees Bettie Kawonga, a 31-year-old lecturer and entrepreneur from Malawi, recently won a $150,000 prize for her idea to encourage underemployed young people to become dairy farmers. Her concept is to create business incubation centres that will help […]
Malawi government has denied that it was caught off-guard by the floods as the agro-based economy, which had recently started showing some signs of stability, is now in reverse gear. Paul Chiunguzeni, the head of Malawi’s department of disaster and relief, rejected accusations that the country was ill-prepared, saying that it “had mixed success with […]
The Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) Deputy National Coordinator, Osbourne Tsoka has said there has been “remarkable progress” in the distribution of commodities in this year’s programme with 90 percent of fertiliser distributed to the 1.5 million smallholder farmers. This year’s Fisp was marred with logistical problems which raised fears of a worst distribution season. […]
A humanitarian and relief organization, Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD), on has appealed to Malawi women farmers to form cooperatives as one way of fighting poverty using common front. CARD Dowa Project coordinator, Mabvuto Phiri, made the call in Dowa this week before a group of 4,000 women who came from the area of […]
One Village One Product (OVOP), a programme under the Japanese Government has launched its five years strategic plan that will direct OVOP movement in the years to come. The 2014 /19 plan will apart from offering direction also guide the implementation of OVOP initiatives in the next five years and address some of the challenges […]
Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima has commended smallholder farmers in the country for their role they play in agriculture and economic activities. Chilima made the commendation when he opened the 18th Annual General Meeting of the National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe. He said smallholder farmers play an important […]
Imani Development has recently conducted a baseline evaluation for a 23-month long project which seeks to build the resilience of disaster-prone communities in Central Malawi, more specifically in the Dowa and Ntchisi Districts, to withstand climactic and economic impacts. In a statement posted on its website, the organization says it has observed that communities in […]
Minister of Agriculture Allan Chiyembekeza suspected a foul play on this year’s Farm Input Subsidy Program (Fisp) which experience some hitches with some districts not yet provided with the coupons or fertiliser for distribution despite it being rainy season. Chiyembekeza in an interview monitored on public broadcaster MBC, questioned the delay by the Reserve Bank […]
International Agricultural group, Stoller has joined forces with the Joyce Banda International Foundation (JBIF) in assisting small, subsistence farmers all over the African Continent. The historical agreement was signed on 10 November 2014 in Johannesburg between Craig Whitlock , Director of Stoller Africa and Joyce Banda, Founder of the Foundation and former president of Malawi. […]
Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) at the Livingstonia Synod has mooted plans to construct a College of Agriculture to help in the training of more specialists in the subject. According to the Synod’s General Secretary Reverend Levi Nyondo, the college will be built in the north of the country to plug the gap for […]
Malawian PhD student at the University of Kentucky, Bettie Sindi Kawonga, 30 was on Thursday October 16 – World Food Day – formally honoured as one of the four young entrepreneurs under the age of 40 as recipients of the $150 000 (about K67.5 million) fellowships to launch innovative social enterprise projects addressing hunger and […]
The European Union has committed €3.8 million towards support to agricultural research and education in Malawi as part of its investment in the knowledge economy of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) member states. Malawi joins around 200 partnerships throughout the ACP world which together promote access to knowledge, reinforce capacities and foster innovations. Aquaculture and […]
One of the most serious errors made by the post-democratic Malawian regimes has been the lack of a committed political leadership to give sincere priority to smallholder agriculture. Unlike during the one party MCP rule where the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda paid more attention on this sector of agriculture which saw Malawi being food […]
President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has pledged continuous support to the Agricultural Sector towards the achievement of notable economic growth. Professor Mutharika made the assurance Thursday at Chichiri Trade Fair grounds in Blantyre where he officially opened the 11th National Agriculture Fair. President Mutharika said it is for this cause that his Government continues to […]