President Lazarus Chakwera says the Malawi Government plans to establish more mega farms to achieve the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) despite the challenges the economy is facing.

The President said this during a roundtable discussing with Food and Agriculture Organisation director general Qu Dongyu in New York, USA, on the sidelines of the 78th Ordinary Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga).

Chakwera called for collaboration with stakeholders to prioritise agriculture industrialisation as a catalyst for food security and economic growth.

“Mega farms have the potential to transform the Malawian economic growth if supported fully by the human resource capacity, enhancing resource mobilisation, improving agricultural practices as well as addressing issues that limit productivity,” he said.

Chakwera (L) with Dongyu
after the meeting

Chakwera assured Dongyu that Malawi has put in place mechanisms to improve agriculture productivity.

He, however, decried that Cyclone Freddy, which hit the country in mid-March this year, has heavily impacted more households, contributing to food insecurity particularly in the Southern Region.

In his remarks, Dongyu assured Malawi of FAO’s continued support, adding that the UN agency is keen to develop ways of establishing mega farms that will help to deal with food insecurity.

Earlier, Chakwera attended the high-level political dialogue on SDGs forum where he delivered a statement.

He said his administration is doing all it can to build resilience and sustainability to achieve the SDGs.

Chakwera said despite the challenges Malawi is currently facing, there is need to fast track efforts in the remaining half of the timeline by using cutting edge technologies to revotionalise key sectors of economy such as agriculture, health and trade.

“Most nations are off-track to meet the 2030 deadline by which time countries are expected to achieve the 17 globally acceptable goals,” said Chakwera.

He called for collaboration with other nations to find solutions to address some of the challenges affecting countries to be off-track.

The President also attended the Invest in Malawi Business Forum where he stressed the need for investors to come and invest in Malawi.

He said potential investors can come and invest in specific projects such as tourism, agriculture and trade.

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