Experts tip govt on crop diversification

Agricultural experts have urged government to implement initiatives that prioritise improving efficiency in farm production to unlock the potential of underutilised agricultural value chains.

The call comes after a local agricultural think-tank, the Mwapata Institute, identified more than 10 agricultural value chains that the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant stakeholders can explore to create alternative revenue streams and sources of food.

In an interview on Monday, Centre for Agricultural Transformation executive director McLeod Nkhoma said government can unlock the potential of other agricultural value chains by implementing initiatives that promote efficiency in the value chain.

He said: “If you look at the state of Malawian farms now, they are heavily degraded.

“At our smart farms, we have been working with local farmers to train them how they can do soil amendments to improve soil health.”

Enhancing the agricultural sector and promoting commercialisation in the agricultural value has been ingrained in Malawi 2063, the country’s long-term development plan, under agriculture productivity and commercialisation pillar.

There have been several initiatives in the past, including the One Village One Product and Horticultural and Food Products Development Programme, among others, to introduce structured markets and empower farmers to capitalise them.

Crown Ministries national coordinator Johann Van der Ham said they have been using earthworms to restore soil health at his demonstration farms in Chigumula, Blantyre.

Van der Ham, who is also one of the lead trainers at the ministry’s stewardship school, said the model he uses to train local farmers can be replicated and scaled up, but stressed that the development would require substantial investment.

On the development of structured markets, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources agricultural economist Horace Phiri said some of the projects fail because they are not sustainable outside their implementation.

He said: “If you have a project where a supermarket, government or donors, have come in and invested in farmers to help them procure inputs and buy from them.

“It is an artificial kind of environment that will deliver results but the results may not be replicated. The important thing is to learn from the previous projects and use those lessons in successive projects.”