Malawi calls for long-term donor support
Malawi Government has called on donors to expand their support to long-term programmes that will reach out to wider areas to achieve national impact.
Speaking in an interview on Wednesday in the lakeshore district of Mangochi on the sidelines of the opening of the Second Symposium on Conservation Agriculture, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Professor Peter Mwanza observed that short-term programmes are normally not sustainable and benefit a few people.
“The mistake is that in short-term projects, there is an assumption that what you are doing elsewhere can easily be replicated and work elsewhere whereas long-term also means long-term planning and a look at issues broadly,†said Mwanza.
He said although a number of donor-funded food security projects have recently included conservation agriculture, they only target ‘very’ small areas and only benefit a few farmers for a short period.
“Taking into consideration the poor health status of most of our soils, I appeal to our development partners to go for long-term investment and research projects on conservation agriculture,†added Mwanza.
The three-day symposium was aimed at providing a platform for conservation agriculture research and stakeholders to share experiences and lessons towards enhancing capacity for its implementation nationwide.
The symposium followed a formation of a National Conservation Agriculture Task Force to promote conservation agriculture farming system.
Conservation agriculture helps increased and sustainable agricultural productivity based on minimum soil disturbances, soil cover and inter-cropping.
Addressing the delegates, Mwanza observed that the performance of the agricultural sector has a strong influence on the country’s economic growth, but sustaining agricultural production is currently threatened due to high rate of land degradation, climate change and use of low yielding crop and animal varieties.
He said much of land degradation is caused by soil erosion which he estimated at 40 tonnes per hectare per year.
The symposium drew a cross section of experts from agricultural extension providers; researchers; academicians; farmer organisations; input suppliers and members of the donor community.
