|
Government says it has found a big market for cassava which if utilised, can make the crop a timely replacement for tobacco which is slowly losing ground to the global antismoking campaign.
Second Vice President Chakufwa Chihana, who is also Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security, said this over the weekend when he visited some farmers in Chiradzulu and Blantyre.
Speaking after visiting dairy and goat farmers in Chiradzulu on Saturday, Chihana said during his recent visit to South Africa he met officials at a glue, animal feed and starch making factory who asked him if Malawi could provide them with cassava which is a raw material for their products.
“This is a very big company which has its own plantations but even these do not meet their requirements. They actually import cassava from Thailand and the Far East. They said they spend a lot of money and would prefer to get the cassava from here,” Chihana told the farmers at a rally he later addressed at Ndanga in Chiradzulu.
The Second Vice President said apart from this market, Ethanol Company in Nkhotakota and Raiply in Mzimba are also looking for cassava as a raw material for their products.
“I would like to urge you farmers to grow a lot of cassava because there are people who are ready to buy all you can produce. The advantage is that, unlike maize or tobacco, cassava does not need fertilizer and is also drought resistant,” said Chihana, adding that apart from selling, cassava is also a food crop that can supplement maize.
And speaking on Sunday after visiting cassava farmers in Chileka, Blantyre, the vice president thanked the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Malawi for encouraging farmers to grow the crop in the country.
Under its emergency programme, FAO Malawi is working with farmers from Limphasa Scheme in Nkhata Bay, Bwanje Scheme in Dedza, Domasi in Zomba, Tithokoze and Thundu in Blantyre to multiply cassava seeds so that they can be distributed to other farmers across the country.
|
