{"id":68398,"date":"2018-07-17T09:18:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T07:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=68398"},"modified":"2018-07-17T09:18:49","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T07:18:49","slug":"expert-fears-for-agriculture-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/07\/17\/expert-fears-for-agriculture-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert fears for agriculture sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>BY CHIMWEMWE MANGAZI:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68400\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/grey-nyandule-phiri.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-68400\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/grey-nyandule-phiri-300x258.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/grey-nyandule-phiri-300x258.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/grey-nyandule-phiri.jpg 424w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHIRI \u2013 Government is fully committed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An expert has blamed agriculture sector\u2019s dwindling input to economy on lack of political will among major factors.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa-based Professor Lovemore Mbigi made the observation in Lilongwe on Monday when delivering a keynote address at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/bam-to-host-agri-business-indaba\/\">inaugural Agri-Business Conference<\/a> organised by the Bankers Association of Malawi (Bam).<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture is the backbone of the Malawi economy but misfortunes have continued to dog the economy, with its input to Gross Domestic Product reportedly dwindling in the recent past.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing delegates on the opening day of the conference, Mbigi said most African governments, Malawi inclusive, fail on policy implementation, as authorities show less interest to improve the sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has to be political will to make it happen because any policy implementation will meet constraints and obstacles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is also too much dependence on rainfall, so it is important to leverage the lake as a blessing,\u201d Mbigi said.<\/p>\n<p>He suggested that Malawi should implement a Development State Model, where the government has an arm that fully participates in agriculture production and every other process in value addition.<\/p>\n<p>He cited Botswana, Mauritius, China, Malaysia and Singapore among model countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA developmental state is one where the government takes the lead in economic development; it is not a spectator, waiting for foreign investors. The government is both a treasurer and an entrepreneur,\u201d Mbigi said.<\/p>\n<p>Bankers Association of Malawi (Bam) President, Paul Guta, concurred with Mbigi, saying the government could be involved through the production chain.<\/p>\n<p>He said the association brought together key stakeholders to brainstorm measures of revamping the sector\u2019s input to the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil people learn to jointly address common challenges, any chance of coming up with solutions would be difficult,\u201d Guta said.<\/p>\n<p>Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Water Development, Grey Nyandule Phiri, said the government was fully committed to improving the sector.<\/p>\n<p>He cited the National Agriculture Investment Plan among key blueprints crafted to improve the sector.<\/p>\n<p>Economic commentators have been calling for diversification of the country\u2019s cropping system away from tobacco to develop other crops, such as pulses, which have high demand in some international markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY CHIMWEMWE MANGAZI: An expert has blamed agriculture sector\u2019s dwindling input to economy on lack of political will among major factors. South Africa-based Professor Lovemore Mbigi made the observation in Lilongwe on Monday when delivering a keynote address at the inaugural Agri-Business Conference organised by the Bankers Association of Malawi (Bam). Agriculture is the backbone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68401,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68398\/revisions\/68401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}