Malawi has intensified efforts to restore its banana industry with renewed focus on smallholder farmers and sustainable value chains under the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Thoko Tembo said the programme presents an opportunity to rebuild a once-thriving sector that declined due to disease outbreaks in the 1990s.
“This means we go back to farming bananas again… on a larger scale,” said Tembo, emphasising that the initiative will be driven by aggregating produce from small-scale farmers.
His remarks come when he officially opened a regional workshop in Lilongwe aimed at strengthening banana production through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme.
Chinese Ambassador to Malawi, Lu Xu, said China’s contribution will centre on skills transfer.
“China is helping Malawi in the process of agricultural modernisation… this time around we are not supporting in cash but in expertise,” said Xu.
She further outlined the long-term vision of the partnership: “We want to teach Malawians how to fish so that they can benefit from this programme for a lifetime.”
FAO Deputy Director for Plant Production and Protection, Chikelu Mba, said the initiative will enhance resilience in food systems.
“The OCOP initiative… supports countries to generate home-grown solutions that buffer their agri-food systems from external shocks,” said Mba.
FAO Representative in Malawi Ali Said Yesuf noted encouraging progress so far.
“We have seen an indication of a reversal of the damage that had happened to banana orchards,” he said.
The initiative is expected to strengthen production, processing and market access, positioning bananas as a key driver of food security, employment and economic growth in Malawi.
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