By Burnett Munthali
On the sidelines of the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit, President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera has taken an opportunity to converge investment-ready stakeholders who are willing to support a 10-Year National Action Plan to address the issue of soil health deterioration in Malawi.
Chakwera wrote on his Facebook page that US$163 million-worth plan of action aims at upscaling Malawi’s capacity to achieve food security and revolutionise the agriculture sector towards exponential productivity and commercialisation for exports.
“During this Malawi Ready Forum, I tasked Ministry of Agriculture officials to facilitate fruitful engagement with these stakeholders so that they tag along to Malawi’s long-term aspirations while getting value for their investment,” Chakwera said.
Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite making significant economic and structural reforms to sustain economic growth. The economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which employs over 80% of the population, and it is vulnerable to external shocks, particularly climatic shocks.
They have historically affected the country but the high population growth, rapid deforestation, overgrazing and ploughing, combined with the impacts of climate change, such as temperature increases and changing precipitation patterns, are increasing the impact of these events that harm agricultural growth.
The 2023 IPC analysis for Malawi indicated that 3 million people representing 15 percent of the total population are experiencing high acute food insecurity IPC Phase 3, Crisis, in 28 districts and four cities.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), reported in February 2022, that approximately 5.4 million people in Malawi (of a total population of 19.1 million) are facing severe to moderate chronic food insecurity.
Revolutionizing Ag: The Advancements and Advantages of Robotization and AI. Robotization and AI in agriculture includes software/digital platforms for data-driven crop support, autonomous cultivation, drones, and various types of robots for harvesting and sorting.
Crop Rotation. One of the most important innovations of the Agricultural Revolution was the development of the Norfolk four-course rotation, which greatly increased crop and livestock yields by improving soil fertility and reducing fallow.
