Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc has donated 103 hectares of land to Lilongwe University of Agriculture Natural Resources (LUANAR) to enable the tertiary education institution to grow maize on a large scale.
The initiative is aimed at complementing government efforts to address food insecurity that has hit the country as a result of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
Team leader for the initiative, who is also a lecturer at LUANAR, Thomas Ruben Nyanda. said the project will help them to reach out to people who were affected by the cyclone and are currently food insecure.
“It is worthwhile to say that illovo has supported us a lot in this initiative by giving us this land for free together with water which we are using for irrigation. This country has a huge potential in irrigation and if we can optimize the resources that we have like waters in our lakes and rivers obviously our country can be a food basket for Africa and even the world,” Nyanda said.
Nyanda said they expect to yield 618 metric tons at a cost of about K300 million.
This is one of corporate social responsibility activities, which Illovo is implementing through its Dwangwa Estate.
