Ministry of Agriculture Applauds CAT’s Role in Agricultural Transformation

The Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension and Services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Kenneth Chaula, has applauded the Center for Agriculture Transformation (CAT) for its role in helping the country realize the Malawi 2063 vision on agricultural productivity and commercialization.

Chaula made this statement in Mponela, Dowa District, during a three-day Training of Trainers on Access to Agricultural Technologies, Finance, and Markets, organized by CAT for 80 field officers.

According to Chaula, the Ministry expects those trained in various skills related to Agricultural Technologies, Finance, and Markets to build the capacity of lead farmers in the field.

“Farmers should produce for the market, but first they must conduct market research to understand what buyers want. This skill has been gained during the training, and they will engage in collective production and collective marketing,” Chaula said.

CAT’s Director of Market Systems, Cuthbert Lunduka, mentioned that the training aimed to equip farmers with knowledge on accessing different technologies and markets to improve their productivity.

“For the last five years, we have been promoting diversification and the adoption of various improved technologies and innovations. We realized that this alone might not be sufficient to support farmers in adopting and commercializing different value chains, which is why we initiated this training to add more skills for them,” Lunduka explained.

One of the trainees, Esinta Ketulo from Msitu Mchinji EPA, described the training as an eye-opener, stating that it helped them learn various agricultural technologies that they will, in turn, teach to different farmers in their areas.

Twenty thousand farmers from five districts are expected to benefit from this training.