Invest in agriculture—Norway
The government of Norway has underscored the need to invest in the agriculture sector and enhance value addition for the country’s economy to significantly grow.
Director General in the department for Economic Relations and Development in Norway, Katja Nordgaard, said Malawi has the potential to thrive on the local and international agriculture markets.
She made the remarks when she visited Nasfam warehouses in Lilongwe recently.
“Malawi has so many possibilities and is already growing crops that are in demand but of course you have to make sure that there is a buyer, turn around and make sure that farmers are able to deliver what is needed,” Nordgaard said.
She expressed satisfaction with how the farmer organization has moved from importing to exporting agricultural products through valued addition.
“We are very impressed with what they have achieved with our support and we are thinking of how to support them going forward,” she added.
NASFAM Chief Executive Officer, Betty Chinyamunyamu, said the organization has significant demand of its products in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana hence the need to balance its supply in such markets with the local demand.
“If we are to only focus on those markets we will not have anything for the local market. But we also need to provide good quality products here so that as a country we can stop importing from other countries. So we have to balance,” Chinyamunyamu said.
She said currently Nasfam is investing in commercialization for sustainability of some of its development programmes that are currently donor funded.
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