IFAD Donates Cold Rooms to the Chitedze Research Station in Malawi, 

By Jacob Nankhonha
The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has given Malawi a grant of US$3 million, earmarking adaptive crop and soil research in the country.
Announcing this on Thursday at Chitedze Research Station, IFAD country representative Bernadette Mukonyora said that the funds that have been sourced from the United States government will be part of a bigger project of phase two of the Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Program (SAPP II) 
She said, "This is a Pan-African initiative. The idea is to continue working on agriculture research and ensure that the research answers market demands. We want to ensure that the farmers are producing the quality and quantity demanded by the market.
This announcement was made on the sidelines of IFAD's donation of seed cold room storage facilities to Chitedze Research Station, which took place at the research station.
Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said this is a positive development as it will strengthen the government's efforts to commercialize agriculture in the country.
He said that IFAD has been supporting Malawi's agriculture sector in many areas, and it is not surprising to learn of this announcement.
Said Kawale, "IFAD, through the Crisis Response Initiative (CRI), has provided us with the seed storage cold rooms we received today. This fills a long-standing gap in plant breeding programs since the old cold rooms are not in good shape."
SAPP II was signed in March this year for US$54 million, of which US$18 million was readily available. The US$3 million adds to the current US$18 million.
The author is a Staff Report at SAPP II in Malawi.