‘Malawi can solve food insecurity’

Malawi has for many years grappled with food insecurity. Memories are still fresh of the food shortage that hit the country in 2015 due to a prolonged drought and floods that damaged crops in most parts of the country. The growing population, climate change and urbanisation continue to put increasing pressure on food systems in the country. Agriculture is a significant contributor to Malawi’s GDP, accounting for about 33 percent in 2015. The sector has grown on average at 6 percent annually over the last 5 years and agriculture accounts for nearly 80 percent of all export and 80 percent of Malawi’s total workforce. Yet, food insecurity continues to rear its ugly face. Where is the country getting it wrong? Our Online Editor, SELLINA KAINJA engages South African-based Grow Africa executive director WILLIAM ASIKO, who was in the country to launch the Commercial Agriculture Support Services (CASS) Malawi Chapter at the Bingu International Conference Center in Lilongwe, to shed more light on the initiative and how it will prop up agriculture in Malawi. Excerpts:

What is Commercial Agriculture Support Services?

CASS is a multi-stakeholder platform that brings together the interests of different stakeholders and provides an opportunity for dialogue and the establishment of mutual interests. It is driven by the private sector. It seeks to engage not just with government, but with farmers and other private sector players with the aim of providing a platform that enables the players to speak with one voice.

Can Malawi solve the food insecurity and can it ever be food secure, how?

Any country can solve its food insecurity problem. Malawi just like many other African countries can also solve its food insecurity problem by putting in place right policies that help increase agriculture production. This should include helping farmers getting right seeds, right fertilisers and right methods of farming to increase production. It also needs to put in place a post harvest strategy. This will help farmers to store their yields and any surplus. It is unfortunate that often surpluses are thrown away because farmers cannot find markets and proper storage of the produce.

Is commercial agriculture the solution to both the economic and social problems facing Malawi?

Yes it can. Malawi can achieve food security because almost 80 percent of its workforce is in agriculture. What government needs to do is to make this workforce produce surplus and ensure they reduce post harvest loss. Agriculture is one way out of poverty. If the farms where farmers work prosper, farmers will also prosper.

What is the role of government in commercial agriculture?

What we have to remember is that commercial agriculture is not having big farms but taking agriculture as a business. Every farmer should be an entrepreneur.  Government should ensure that farmers have access to markets and finance so that they can access farm inputs.

It is unfortunate that farm inputs are very expensive which makes it difficult for many farmers to access right inputs. Government should ensure that farmers can access even soft loans that they can use to buy farmer inputs as well as aid them during farming. In other words, government should create an enabling environment for agriculture to flourish as a business. This would help farmers to move from farming for just subsistence but also for business.

Also what farmers need is education. The agriculture extension services that many African countries had was a good idea because it helped farmers to be schooled on good farming practices. Now they have been left to do it alone. If farmers cannot increase productivity they will remain subsistence farmers.

What is the role of regional bodies such as Sadc in all this?

Farmers do not need to necessary know that there is need Sadc [Southern Africa Development Community] or Comesa [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa] but they should feel the effects of such bodies. What these bodies can do is to come up with a policy of standardisation. What this means is that crops grown in Malawi should find markets in Lesotho or anywhere else outside Malawi.

But, currently there is no standardisation in seeds, for example. This makes it difficult for farmers in countries such as Malawi to sell their produce in Zambia, because Zambia might say the produce does not meet its standards. These bodies should facilitate trade. This they can do by, among other things, removing tariffs. They should also remove barriers to trade so that surpluses can be sold without difficulties.