Vice President Saulos Chilima has called upon Malawians to move from the traditional agriculture and embrace modern and innovative agricultural practices.
Chilima said this on Thursday in Lilongwe at a Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) Agriculture Policy Conference held under the theme ‘The Africa Continental Free Trade Area, Opportunities and Challenges for Malawi’.
Speaking during the conference, the Vice President said the much-touted traditional agriculture has changed and continues to change and it is important that Malawi also commercializes the sector through readily available innovation.
According to Chilima, modern agriculture has to meet quality standards and have desired value-added products.
“Simple economics teaches us that the one who sells more gains more. Therefore, the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement can only be meaningful to us if we sell more.
We have to make tangible strides with the targets set through the country’s National Export Strategy II. We, cannot continue to be a consuming country!” Said Chilima.
During the conference, CISANET made a number of recommendations to government to address.
Among the recommendations, the Network called upon government to identify one or two more crops to beef up exports.
Speaking to MIJ Online, Betty Chinyamunyamu CISANET Vice Board Chair said tobacco has been the country’s main forex earner for the past 120 years.
She said the identified crops should also have a structured market systems just like tobacco.
Further, CISANET has called upon government to start reducing gradually funding towards Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).
According to Chinyamunyamu, Malawi is loosing much forex on fertilizer than the forex that is earned from the maize.
On her part, Pamela Kuwali, CISANET Executive Director said the recommendations will be shared through an interministerial communique and sent to government for action.
