Peter Mutharika to unveil agriculture policy
President Peter Mutharika disclosed that he will unveil an agriculture policy which aims at ending the perennial problem of hunger in the country.
Mutharika said this during a rally that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) conducted at Nchalo, in Chikwawa on Friday.
His announcement comes in the wake of hunger that has rendered three million households destitute as Admarc depots run short of maize, forcing vendors to sell the staple food at K15,000 and K19,000 per 50kg bag of maize and maize flour respectively.
“Soon I will announce the agriculture policy. From now onwards, the Ministry of Agriculture will be the key ministry for development. It will not just be a ministry responsible for food security but key area for our export base,” said Mutharika.
Mutharika further said the ministry will go full throttle into value addition of different crops, a development that will attract foreign investors and improve the economy of Malawi in the long run.
Mutharika announced this barely a day after he moved George Chaponda from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development during a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday, a development that saw Allan Chiyembekeza facing the chop from the Agriculture Ministry.
Taking to the podium at the rally, Chaponda, who is also DPP’s vice president for the Southern Region, vowed to resuscitate the Agriculture Ministry, which has faced growing criticism in the way it has managed the current hunger crisis.
“It is not strange that people call me Bulldozer. Let me assure you that things will change at the ministry. I will strive to roll out the Shire Valley Irrigation Project. I have travelled alongside you Mr. President to China and appreciated several irrigation schemes. We are going to implement those systems here. I want the Shire Valley to be Malawi’s bread basket,” said Chaponda.
Surprisingly, Chaponda told the rally that it was sad that the Ministry of Agriculture failed to execute President Mutharika’s instructions, implicitly implying that the President must have fired Chiyembekeza, the only casualty in the Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle, from the Ministry Agriculture on the grounds of underperformance.
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