CHAKWERA LAUNCHES AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION INITIATIVE

 

Shall the use of traditional farm equipment such as hoes in cultivating our farms last forever? It is not of a surprise in today’s world which is being molded and revolutionized after digital and sophisticated technologies, living no industry aside as it has also incorporated agricultural industry, with tremendous, sophisticated farm technologies and other farm practices to ease and promote effective and efficient farm operation with minimal human effort required in achieving high productivity. Yesterday was a big day where the state president of Malawi Dr. Lazarus Chakwera was officially launching agricultural mechanization enterprise at Bingu International Convection Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Launching ceremony led off at 8:00am where the vice president of Malawi Dr. Saulos Chilima, the Minister of agriculture Sam Kawale and other government officials accompanied the state president to the initiation of Malawi entrepreneur agricultural mechanization enterprise, which has been sponsored by Philip Morris International (PMI) and being implemented by a partner, Pyxus Agriculture Malawi limited.

PMI and Pyxus have provided a capital funding for the purchase of and other machines tractors extension to the tractors, Dr. Grants Roberts, PMI’s director for global technical services said that it is their wish to help Malawian farmers in order to build and develop agriculture in Malawi. PMI is an American Multinational tobacco company which was founded by Philip Morris in 2008 as a spinoff company from its original existence in 1847, and now owned by Jacek Olczak as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). PMI is well known in liaising with Malawi government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a range of many activities and projects, for instance in tobacco farming and marketing projects, school feeding programs and agricultural mechanization projects and among others.

(Jacek Olczak- Chief Executive Officer PMI)

Ronald Ngwira, Managing Director of Pyxus Agriculture accented that improving sustainable agriculture in Malawi is a key priority aligned with the implementation of the agriculture mechanization.

Chakwera said that the initiative is there to help farmers to be able to obtain farm machinery on loan. During the launch, 23 tractors have been supplied to various farmers and cooperatives, to help them in mechanizing their fields while maximizing gains. With the already running initiatives on ground such as private sector mega farms, farmers who practicing large scale farming will be able to acquire the tractors easier in order to boost up farming operations, and also engaging private and institutions in implementation of mega farms initiatives.

This initiative has been put in place to fully achieve the Malawi agenda of 2063, as the agenda item number 2 highlights that by 2023, the nation shall have a vibrant knowledge-based economy with a competitive and strong manufacturing industry that is driven by a productive and commercially vibrant agriculture sector. So MW2063 aims at transforming the nation to be a self-reliant and wealthy industrialized “upper middle-income country by the year oof 2063.

Access to tractors will enable farmers to cultivate various crop varieties for export, raw materials and food, and also, they will play a big role in maximizing the nation’s agriculture productivity as part of implementing Agriculture Commercialization, Agriculture Tourism Mining strategy (ATM) as well as Mega farms initiative.

The program is also expected to benefit small holder farmers in a wide range of activities, as this will help them in improving crop yields and maintaining soil fertility through the use of tractors in their fields, this will also aid small holders farmers to expose themselves to great opportunities such as access to market places, transportation of farm produce, expansion of land for cultivation as they keep on investing, easing farm workload leading to lessening human effort required in performing farm operations and enabling small scale farmer to investing more in cash crops.

Chakwera commended PMI and Pyxus Agriculture Malawi for their efforts in making Malawi a self-reliant nation in achieving food security, which is in-line with the Malawi Agenda 2063. This indicates a greenlight that the set agenda MW2064 is making progress towards achieving the intended outcome for the betterment of the nation before the year of 2063.

He also encouraged the beneficiary of the program to responsibly repay their loans in time to ensure the sustainable continuation of the project and he proceeded by urging Malawi Ministry of Agriculture to hasten and ensure the full implementation of the program so that people can start making use of the machines in their farms.

Many farmer will be able realize high yields, profits from their produce hence resulting in household, community and national development, as many things will be achieved in all levels starting from the individual, household, community and national level, where the nation is expected to generate more agricultural produce and achieving the balance of trade likewise achieving a favourable balance of trade as reflected in the MW2063.

Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale expressed the commitment of the Ministry in making Malawi an agricultural driven nation, he added that the ministry will continue to support the vision of Dr Lazarus Chakwera in revolutionizing the agriculture sector through the implementation of agricultural machinery.

One of the beneficiaries, Temwanani Phiri a seasoned entrepreneur and the founder of Teren Investments showed a gratitude to PMI and Pyxus for providing support with the implementation of the program, he also highlighted that the program will not only benefit farmers but also aid in doubling productivity of the nation.