By Burnett Munthali
Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba says government has put in place a conducive environment for propelling investments in agriculture.
Zamba was speaking in Dallas, Texas-USA on Wednesday 8 May 2024 during a panel discussion on Scaling Agribusiness Ventures: Opportunities and Challenges in Taking Africa Agribusiness to a New Level which is part of the ongoing US-Africa Business Summit.
Zamba said the government of President Lazarus Chakwera is promoting agri-industrialisation, as part of its ATM Strategy, which would help unlock wealth and jobs.
Groundnuts are probably the most profitable crops since they can be processed into other products like peanut butter, cooking oil, and groundnut flour. People even like eating groundnuts unprocessed or roasted, which is also highly nutritious.
Inadequate infrastructure: Poor infrastructure, such as inadequate transportation, storage facilities, and irrigation systems, poses a significant challenge to agribusiness development in Africa. This makes it difficult for youth entrepreneurs to access markets and transport their products to consumers.
There is also an urgent need to generate skills, stimulate productivity, promote investment, provide infrastructure and transport facilities, upgrade enterprise operations, transfer technology, reduce the costs of doing business and introduce appropriate standards to enable products to compete in international markets.
