As part of the events for the visit by the Norwegian Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) President, Gilbert Houngbo, to Malawi, today, they held discussions with Farmer organisations at BICC, where NAFAM was in attendance. Speaking during the interface meeting, NASFAM Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Betty Chinyamunyamu highlighted on the potential that agriculture has to transform Malawi smallholder farming systems.
Chinyamunyamu drew the attention of the hosts to the need to supporting agriculture throughout the value chain including extension services, access to inputs and financing, mechanisation, marketing infrastructure and value addition.
When they enquired on challenges affecting the sector, Chinyamunyamu highlighted climate change, and COVID-19 as some of the major challenges that have worsened the challenging environment in which smallholders were already working in. She noted that COVID-19 has negatively affected extension service delivery due to restrictions, while climate change has made it difficult for farmers to plan if not equipped with resilient methods.
Whilst e-extension is a solution to the problem caused by COVID-19, in the short-term it does not yield the intended results due to the high cost of technology in Malawi.
Chinyamunyamu also emphasized how investment in value addition initiatives, like the ones being undertaken by her institution, can play key role in sustaining market access for smallholder farmer, while also creating opportunity for both domestic and export markets. To this end, she called for support towards crop diversification with the right incentives in both input and output markets.
Norway is one of the major donors that has helped NASFAM grow from being a small project over 20 years ago, to becoming the largest smallholder farmer organisation in Malawi, with a complex system that supports both developmental and commercial activities of smallholder farmers in a bid to improve their livelihood