Africa-Press – Malawi. The Greenbelt Authority (GBA) has said it is targeting over 10,000 hectares for commercial irrigation by next year.
In an interview on Wednesday, GBA Chief Executive Officer Eric Dudley Chidzungu said the authority was intensifying efforts to rehabilitate and commercialise several government-owned farms, most of which had been idle or operating below capacity.
“We are a key driver in Malawi’s commercial agricultural transformation. Through our involvement in the mega farms’ initiative, we are rehabilitating large-scale irrigation schemes, ensuring they support not just rice or maize production but a range of high-value crops,” Chidzungu said.
He said the authority was directly engaging in large-scale farming operations whereby in Salima, it cultivated 100 hectares of maize last year and 200 hectares this year, yielding over 800 metric tonnes of grain that were delivered to the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).
“Through this trial, we’ve demonstrated our ability to run large-scale farming operations. This coming rainy season, we plan to expand to 400 or 500 hectares,” Chidzungu said
Chidzungu said, currently, GBA was focusing on revamping 800 hectares of farmland in Mangochi, 700 hectares in Nkhotakota, about 1,000 hectares in Karonga, close to 3,000 hectares in Salima and over 1,000 hectares in Chikwawa, which were in a state of disrepair.
Meanwhile, agriculture policy analyst Leonard Chimwaza has called for private sector involvement to support the government’s investment so that stakeholders could realise the agriculture commercialisation dream.
“We cannot talk about commercialising agriculture without focusing on irrigation, especially given the challenges of climate change,” Chimwaza said.
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