Malawi, Kenya to sign MoU on cooperatives

The goverments of Malawi and Kenya governments are set to sign a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperatives.

Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe announced this when he
attended a rice and cooperatives workshop in Lilongwe on Thursday.

The workshop, which was organised by the Civil Society Agriculture
Network (Cisanet), brought together farmers, officials from Ministry
of Trade and Industry, and different stakeholders to analyse
successes, challenges and way forward of cooperatives in Malawi.

Gwengwe said the MoU will involve education visits between the two
countries; an arrangement which he said will benefit Malawi by
learning how cooperatives are run in Kenya.

“Kenya is doing very well with cooperatives. Forty-three percent of
the Kenyan economy is based on cooperatives. They also have a special
university which offers studies in cooperatives to farmers. Therefore,
the MoU will see Kenyans coming to Malawi to teach Malawian farmers on
how they can benefit by forming cooperatives. Other Malawians will
also be going to Kenya to learn. The MoU is ready for signing and
everything will be done before the year ends,” said Gwengwe.

Gwengwe also described cooperatives as key to agricultural development
because they help farmers to maximise profits.

“It it more profitable to sell the harvest as a group rather than each
farmer selling individually. The problem with our agriculture is not
necessarily the market but the way we sell our harvest. The market is
always there but we should sell as a group to earn more,” said the
minister.