MwAPATA in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and National Planning Commission, conducted a two-day Agriculture Productivity and Commercialization Conference from the 29th to the 30th of August 2023 at Bingu International Conference Center under the theme, “Diversified agricultural value chains for improved trade balances and foreign currency reserves”.The DCAFS member agencies namely USAID, ATI, AGRA, WB, AfDB and IFAD financially and technically supported the conference.
- During panel discussions, Jeff deGraffenried, the USAID Director of Sustainable Economic Growth (SEG) underscored the need for Malawi to improve agriculture produce testing standards to ably compete on the global market so that can access export markets. In addition, he applauded the Public and Private Dialogue Forum (PPD) as a strategic high-level dialogue platform, however, underscored the need for consistent quarterly meeting schedules and more importantly to have actions properly followed.
- The Minister of Industry and Trade, Hon. Simplex Chinthyola MP, applauded the inter-minister networking between the MoA and MoIT which is key for the agriculture commercialization growth. He pointed out that following the displayed products on the pavilions, the Government is confident that there is a good improvement in the quality of Malawian products to access international markets. He then affirmed the government’s commitment to create an enabling environment to transpire the commercialization agenda in line with the priorities in the MW2063 implementation plan (MIP-1).
- In her keynote address, Dr. Agnes Kalibatha, the President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), underlined the importance of political will in championing the Food System Transformation agenda. She also underscored the need to support scientists in coming up with technologies that are catalysts to the agricultural transformation.
- On practical experiences, Mr. Winston Yohanne, the chairperson of Phata Sugarcane out-growers Cooperative emphasized that capital investments and strategic partnerships with the private sector off-takers for international trade linkages are critical factors for cooperative business growth.
- On milestones to agricultural commercialization, Dr. Medrina Mloza Banda, the Principal Secretary for Agriculture responsible for Technical Services, cited the finalization of a market-oriented National Agriculture Policy, the development of an agriculture diversification strategy and a number of inception activities towards implementation of megafarms as some of the achievements by the Government.
- In conclusion, the Executive Director for MwAPATA, William Chadza highlighted a number of policy action points from the conference and these included the following: improve policy cohesion, predictability and consistency; ensure long-term national stability, predictability and consistency of rules, guidelines, procedures and policies; the need to incentivize the private sector; fast track mega and anchor farm initiatives; establish and formalize structured markets for alternative value chains; diversify agricultural investment pathways beyond maize.