By Staff Reporter
Minister of Trade and Industry, Sosten Gwengwe, M.P, yesterday lauded SMEs under United States of America African Development Fund (USADF Programme) for demonstrating seriousness towards sustainable livelihood improvement through agriculture.
Speaking during a field visit to Nchena and Changa Cooperatives under Senior Chief Simon in the district, the Minister said cooperatives and SMEs are the way to go if Malawi is to grow economically.
According to Gwengwe, USADF received funding from the Hemsley Charitable Trust (HCT) to implement a Livelihood Improvement Project (LIP) through Umodzi Consulting Limited, a local partner for USADF. The US$4.5 million programme is unique because it uses a “whole farm business” approach with the aim of delivering sustainable farming and increased incomes for local population with priority given to individuals with chronic diseases and their families.
“I have been reliably informed that this funding was channelled to 14 cooperatives that were all trained by my Ministry. Their objectives were:
to improve Patient Outcomes through improved diet diversification, nutrition & incomes,
improved livelihoods through increased skills in value addition, development of market networks and trade activities, and
improved resilience through the promotion of climate smart technologies that will improve resilience by the targeted community, ” he said.
While thanking the Minister for visiting them, members of the cooperatives appealed to the Minister to lobby for an increase in the grants.
Later in the day, the Minister travelled to Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre, where he challenged agriculture commodity off-takers, processors, exporters, anchor farmers, aggregators, and SMEs to take advantage of the AGCOM grants to enhance value addition which will see Malawi shifting from being a predominantly consuming and importing economy to a producing and exporting one.
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