CCARDESA’S APPSA Project Strengthens Malawi’s Agricultural Research

Written by Blair Mhone

Malawi’s agricultural sector is said to have benefitted heavily from the World Bank-funded SADC project called Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa APPSA, through infrastructure development at Bvumbwe, Chitedze and Kasinthula Research Stations. The infrastructure enhancement, which is in form of irrigation facilities, road networks, increased availability of office buildings and laboratory services was made in order to alleviate challenges in the output of agricultural technologies by the Department of Agricultural Research Services in the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to the report, Malawi had limited capacity in national agricultural research systems in generating demand-driven agricultural technologies which result in low productivity among smallholder farmers. “Inadequate infrastructure was ranked as one of the major factors negatively affecting technology generation and dissemination in the SADC region, investment in building or rehabilitating research facilities such as laboratories, irrigation schemes water reservoirs as well as expanding fields for trials was identified as a key to accelerating the process of agricultural development,” the report said.

APPSA Communications Officer in Malawi, Hector Malaidza said the programme also aimed at encouraging the youth to venture into agriculture, as there are also many professional opportunities in the sector including research, marketing, extension as well as in the agro-industry. Malaidza says youth-friendly activities implemented by APPSA include information packages that aim at bringing awareness to youths and they mainly focus on the bright side of agricultural business and professional aspects.

He said “It is advantageous to an agriculturally based economy such as Malawi if it strategically engages the youth in agriculture since they take a substantial proportion of the population. Additionally, the youth can also be the right change agents for disseminating agricultural information and technologies and once acquainted of new information, it’s great to their education; they also transfer it to their home as well as their communities.”

The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa APPSA is a World Bank-funded project under Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa CCARDESA and was being implemented in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia since 2013 with the aim of strengthening coordination and cooperation in the generation of agricultural technologies, capacity building and knowledge sharing of which, each country was allocated US$ 29.8 million.