Zomba District Council agribusiness officer Helen Bango has encouraged farmers to embrace value addition to boost their livelihoods.
She said this on Saturday during a visit to 80 farmers from Nankhunda Association of Strawberry in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mlumbe who received K23.9 million grant from the World Bank-funded Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (Mwasip) for a juice-making initiative.
Bango said value addition helps farmers to reap more from their sweat.
She said: “In this case, they will get money from every strawberry harvested because they will process them into juices.
“Juice is more valuable and can fetch more money on the market than selling raw strawberries.”
Bango commended Mwasip project for complementing government’s efforts to help farmers venture into profitable businesses.
One of the farmers, Jimmy M’bwana, said the project will help them to expand their business through focusing on value addition.
“We are pleased with the support as it will enable us to produce high quality juice that will improve our income-generation,” he said.
M’bwana also said the project equipped them with new farming methods and business skills that have enhanced their productivity and access to markets.
The project’s technical team member Oswald Mulenga said they are helping farming groups with grants along the Shire River Basin to conserve the environment and improve their agricultural productivity.
The initiative has provided grants worth between $5 000 and about $25 000 to 12 farmer groups and one agri-entrepreneur with between $25 000 and $50 000 in the district for various agribusinesses.
Mwasip is also planning to construct Tsenjerani Irrigation Scheme in Traditional Authority Dambe in Neno District to enable farmers grow crops more than once a year.
