The Minister of Agriculture Sam Dalitso Kawale has pledged commitment by President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and his administration to collaborate with farmer associations in addressing food insecurity by increasing and improving production and productivity.

Kawale was speaking last when he visited NASCOMEX Limited in Lilongwe to appreciate the strides the company is making in adding value to agricultural produce.

NASCOMEX Limited is the commercial arm of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM), which is an organization of farmers associations in Malawi.

Kawale said President Chakwera values the agriculture sector as the engine for the social and economic development of this country.

He said it is against this background that the Head of State initiated the Mega Farms Project as a vehicle for transforming smallholders into commercial farmers.

“The President wants the agriculture sector to grow very quickly. That’s why in most of his speeches, he challenges us, in the ministry, to work extra harder to ensure his dream of transforming this sector is realized,” he said.

At this point, Kawale challenged NASFAM to train and equip its farmer members with skills that can enable them to become business farmers.

“Time is past when you had to train farmers to do farming as business. Now it’s time to train and equip them to do farming business,” he emphasized.

In her remarks, NASFAM Chief Executive Officer Dr Betty Chinyamunyamu highlighted lack of startup capital and machinery as a major hindrances to farming business.

Chinyamunyamu therefore asked the government to facilitate the introduction of loans targeting smallholder farmers in Malawi.

In response, Kawale assured that his ministry would collaborate with funding baskets such as the National Economic Empowerment Fund, Malawi Agriculture an Industry Investment Cooperative, FiNES Project and Agricultural Commercial (AGCOM) Project to extend the disbursement of their loans to farmers.

“We can sit down and discuss how farmers can access these loans. We can come up with an arrangement to enable your farmers to qualify for these loans. You’re helping the government to increase production, so we have to support you to increase production,” said Kawale.