{"id":73899,"date":"2019-02-01T10:57:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T08:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=73899"},"modified":"2019-02-01T10:57:44","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T08:57:44","slug":"systematic-research-gap-affects-beef-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/02\/01\/systematic-research-gap-affects-beef-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Systematic research gap affects beef production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Chimwemwe Mangaz:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73903\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73903\" style=\"width: 277px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nelson-mataka.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-73903\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nelson-mataka-277x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nelson-mataka-277x300.jpg 277w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nelson-mataka.jpg 337w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73903\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MATAKA\u2014Farmers should not struggle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lack of research and exposure of industry players to global trends has been faulted for slow growth of the country\u2019s beef industry.<\/p>\n<p>The observation was made at a stakeholders interface in Lilongwe on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>At the indaba, stakeholders were brainstorming possible ways of improving the sector\u2019s contribution to the national economic development agenda.<\/p>\n<p>It transpired at the meeting that public research institutions do not have adequate resources and this has of recent negatively affected the industry\u2019s growth strides.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi Roundtable Sustainable Beef Chairperson, Patrick Khembo, said lack of extension services has contributed to the challenges.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe don\u2019t have extension services that support the beef industry. We have to develop policies aimed at promoting the beef industry in the country,\u201d<\/em> Khembo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A livestock farmer from Mzimba, Peter Masebo, concurred with Khembo, saying there are knowledge gaps among beef producers.<\/p>\n<p>Head of the National Agricultural Investment Programme, Nelson Mataka, said the government is committed to reviving the livestock industry.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe are procuring and restocking the farms; the idea is that when farmers want to buy livestock, which they want to raise, they should not struggle,\u201d<\/em> Mataka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Currently, cattle population stands at 1.5 million with 97 percent of the beef produced consumed locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chimwemwe Mangaz: Lack of research and exposure of industry players to global trends has been faulted for slow growth of the country\u2019s beef industry. The observation was made at a stakeholders interface in Lilongwe on Wednesday. At the indaba, stakeholders were brainstorming possible ways of improving the sector\u2019s contribution to the national economic development [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73899","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\/73899","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=73899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73904,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73899\/revisions\/73904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}