Trade programme to rehabilitate road

Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (Trade) desk officer Knowledge Mtambo says the programme is set to rehabilitate Mzenga-Mhone Village Road in Traditional Authority Kabunduli to ease transportation of honey.

He said this on Saturday during a site visit with the contractors who expressed interest to bid for the project.

Mtambo, who is also Nkhata Bay district agribusiness officer, said the road will connect bee farmers to Mzenga Aggregation Centre where packaging, processing and value addition is done.

“The road that farmers use to transport their honey to the aggregation centre at Mzenga is bad and not accessible during the rainy season. To ensure that farmers are able to access markets, Trade programme will rehabilitate this road,” he said.

Mtambo encouraged smallholder farmers to embrace the project and support the contractors to do a good job.

Jenthuka Mhone, a bee farmer from Kaboko Village in the area, commended Trade programme for rehabilitating the road.

“The road will not only help beefarmers transport their honey to the aggregation centre and markets, but also farmers engaged in crop production,” he said.

Mhone pledged to support the contractors during the rehabilitation works to ensure quality work.

Trade programme field engineer Tamanda Mabaso said every year they assess infrastructure needs of farmers and implement projects in line with the needs.

She assured the contractors that funds are available and they expect the rehabilitation of the eight kilometres road to start in two months.

Trade programme is funded by Ifad, Opec Fund and Malawi Government.