President Lazarus Chakwera has said government does not have free money to throw at lazy people.
Chakwera was speaking at Chinthembwe Primary School Ground in Ntchisi where he launched the $295 million (about K501 billion) Agriculture Commercialisation (Agcom 2) Project.
The Malawi leader claimed that there are some people in Malawi who want government to give them money for free, or “who want us to give them money just because they belong to a party”.
He said others want to be given money just because they know how to make noise.
“But the country doesn’t have the luxury of throwing money at people whose appetites for consumption are never satisfied. We are in a very serious situation in which we must prioritise funding those who want to use the little money we have to grow something, to build something, and to produce something of value that will generate even more money for the country,” Chakwera said.
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He said the $295 million that government has secured for Agcom 2 is for those who want to work on the land God gave them to produce something of value, something that creates wealth, jobs and also creates a new and prosperous future.
“No country is coming here to feed us; so, we must work the ground to grow the food necessary to feed ourselves. As it is, at the start of December, it will be good for us as a nation to take a moment to pray that God gives us good rains so that our work in the fields does not go to waste.
“However, even where the rains do not do well, this Agcom 2 programme gives us the chance to invest in irrigation infrastructure so that when there is no water from the sky, we can use the water that Malawi is already blessed with on the ground,” Chakwera said.
While encouraging farmers to work in groups, Chakwera said there is a market out there for the country’s agriculture products.
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He said farming as groups enables Malawi to increase the productivity of the land and labour.
“It enables us to mechanise our farming. It enables us to negotiate for better prices for our produce.
“It also enables us to have ownership and a stake in the profits the country makes when the produce is exported, which is why I must commend all the smallholder farmers who managed to contribute 5 million [United States] dollars to co-finance projects in Agcom 1, and I want to see more Malawians taking ownership of their agricultural wealth in this Agcom 2,” Chakwera said.
Agcom 2 will be implemented in all districts across the country.
The six irrigation schemes it will develop will be allocated in the centre and north of the country, complementing the geographic focus of other ongoing projects by the Government of Malawi.
The project will establish 560 new productive alliance subprojects and will support about 112,000 farmers, with the expected 134,400 overall number of direct beneficiaries.
Direct beneficiaries will include value chain actors including producers (farmers and farmer producer organisations), buyers (processors, retailers, exporters and aggregators), financial institutions lending to the agribusiness sector and targeted government agencies.
The project will support the integration of small-scale and emerging farmers (defined as farmers cultivating no more than eight hectares) into value chains by improving their capacity to finance and execute productivity-enhancing investments and respond to the requirements of end-markets and buyers (off takers).
World Bank Country Manager Hugh Riddell said Agcom 2 brings the scale and ambition to catalyse the agricultural transformation of Malawi and deliver the vision of Malawi 2063.
Riddell said the project will bring continued matching grant financing to existing and new farmer cooperatives while opening a new window for small and medium enterprises and anchor farms for scale and sustainability.
“It will also support those groups to demarcate and adjudicate around 10,000 parcels of land enhancing title security and incentivising investment.
“We will also develop climate-smart farming through the development of six catalytic irrigation schemes across the country, around 5,000 hectares, and an additional 12,000 beneficiaries,” Riddell said.
Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale said Agcom 1 benefitted 75,000 farmers, translating into 350,000 individuals.
In that phase, the World Bank provided $95 million.
Kawale said it was encouraging to note that women are leading on the list of beneficiaries.
