Must engages people in palm fruit oil production

Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) director of research, post graduate studies and outreach programme Alfred Maluwa has urged people in Karonga to embrace new technologies in palm fruit oil production.

He made the call on Saturday at Iponga in Senior Chief Mwakaboko when the university, through the United Kingdom-based Royal Academy of Engineering’s Higher Education Partnership in Sub Saharan Africa, donated a K4 million worth diesel-powered crude oil processing machine to farmers.

Said Maluwa: “We embarked on the project after realising that Malawian oil refiners import crude oil from South America, yet we have resources such as soya, sunflower and palm fruits.

“So, we identified this community after noting that they were using manual machine to produce crude oil for export to neighbouring countries.”

He said the machine will increase production from100 litres of oil per day to 1 000 litres per hour.

“That means apart from efficiency and quality, they will also find time to do other household chores,” said Maluwa.

One of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Mwakaboko, described the donation as a Christmas gift, saying it will maximise production.

He said: “We hope to generate more profits from the increased production.

“Most importantly, the machine has cut labour and time needed to produce more oil.”

On his part, Senior Chief Mwakaboko asked the farmers to take good care of the machine.

“Oil production has the potential to improve people’s livelihoods, as such use the machine for its intended purpose,” he said.

After the handover, farmers brought the palm oil fruits and tested the machine how it processes them into oil.