President Lazarus Chakwera has urged farmers in the country to embrace commercial farming by mechanising and modernising their farming methods to reap maximum farming benefits.
He said this Thursday when he presided over the launch of the Private Sector Mega Farms at Mega Farm Support Unit Centre at Kanengo, Lilongwe.
Chakwera described the development of mega farms in the country as a game changer to the farmers.
“Our farmers have deep and rich knowledge about farming but many of them do not get as much out of their farms as they can because the focus is on subsistence farming that uses tools from a bygone era,” explained Chakwera
Minister of Trade Simplex Chithyola Banda, who represented Minister of Agriculture at the launch, concurred with Chakwera saying agriculture remains the country’s economy backbone and has potential to contribute over 70 percent of the Gross Domestic product (GDP).
He, however, cited low mechanisation, poor access to finance, and limited irrigation as some of the factors that have contributed to the failure of agriculture in the country to realise its potential.
“Today, the Ministry has mobilised more than 800 private sector medium and large-scale farmers, most of whom are potential mega farmers, to go into commercial farming in the forthcoming 2023/2024 agricultural farming season,” said Chithyola Banda.
Private Sector Council Chairperson, Ronald Ngwira hailed the mega farms launch saying it will revive some farms which have been idle for some time.
Chakwera is expected to launch another mega farm in Nkhata Bay next week before launching another one in Chikwawa to have the mega farms spread across all the regions in the country.
Establishment of mega farms in the country was one of President Chakwera’s campaign promises.
Reported By Robert Katuli
