US keen to revamp Malawi’s agriculture

Councillor for East Africa in the US Department of Agriculture Kate Snipes says her country has the desire to build the capacity of Bunda College because it is where Malawi technocrats in the agriculture sector are trained.

Speaking when she handed over animal laboratory equipment worth K28 million to the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar), Snipes said the potential of agriculture is so huge and America will continue to support government initiatives in this sector.

“The desire of the US government through USaid is to build the capacity of institutions like Luanar because this is where agriculture experts are trained. Luanar is one of our most important partners and we hope this equipment will make a huge difference,” said Snipes.

She said the new equipment will help students in the department of animal science to conduct research and other services for feed ingredients and product evaluation.

“Agriculture is key to the development of the country and Malawi has got huge potential. It is important for us to help in the areas we can. The machine will greatly help improve the livestock sector,” said Snipes.

Vice-Chancellor for Luanar, Professor Kanyama Phiri, disclosed that Luanar has enjoyed a long time relationship with the United States through USaid in terms of support of its programmes and also linkages and MoU’s with American universities.

“The machine that we have received today is one of its kind. The lab had very old and obsolete equipment and the donation has come at a time when Luanar as a new university is out to make huge difference in the agricultural sector,’ said Phiri.

Kanyama disclosed that the equipment in the laboratory has been there since the 1960s the donation was timely.

“Before this donation we could take hours and hours to test food samples but now we will be able to conduct fibre analysis, water purification as well as research. We will now be able to conduct tests on samples from all research stations and even other companies and we will be charging a small fee,” said Kanyama Phiri.

The new equipment include modern Ankom fat anlyser, Ankom fibre analyser, Ankom Daisy invitro digestion unit, Bomb calorimeter, oven kjedal unit and reagent grade water purification unit.