Africa-Press – Malawi. World Bank has stressed the need to focus on improving and enhancing agricultural commercialisation among farmers as envisioned in the Malawi 2063. Senior Agriculture Economist at World Bank Malawi office, Time Fatch, said on Thursday that the bank has been focusing on improving productivity through various projects including Agriculture Sector Wide Approach Support Project (Aswap-SP I and II), hence the need to also enhance commercialisation.
Fatch was speaking in Thyolo where he monitored the progress of the extended project of Aswap[1]SP II. “Aswap-SP is the project that was focusing on productivity and diversification. We have done that and farmers are now aware of the technologies that we have developed under the project. This was like a foundation; we are now organising farmers to go into commercialisation of agriculture as underlined by Malawi 2063,” he said.
The bank pumped $69.8 million in the implementation of Aswap-SP I and II in 12 districts for a period of five years until June 2023. The project provided new agriculture technologies, clean farm materials and improve livestock production.
The project’s Head of National Agriculture Investment Plan Secretariat in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nelson Mataka, said unlike other projects, Aswap-SP has been more successful through adoption of model villages other than targeting individuals.
“Concentration of activities in model villages is bringing fast results. Where we are not using such model, our technologies are spread thinly among other beneficiaries,” he said.
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