A new pilot program has rolled out in the Mchinji and Lilongwe districts, aimed at addressing capital and resource barriers, access and training for alternative value chains, development of business plans, and gender challenges for women smallholder farmers.

Opportunity International has partnered with First Capital Bank Malawi, Horizon Farm in Lilongwe, Pyxus International, and other key stakeholders for this program, for farmers to access capital to expand their businesses; an opportunity that the program will give in order to inspire supply and demand for farmers working with alternative crops.

Country Director of Agricultural Transformation Initiative, Candida Nakhumwa, remarked that the Agricultural Transformation Initiative is dedicated to supporting the efforts of smallholder tobacco farmers to diversify their crop portfolio. She said “Opportunity International has successfully developed initiatives that benefit farmers, and this partnership will allow us to provide new and innovative solutions to tobacco farming communities in Malawi”

With cash crops tea, tobacco, maize and sugar facing major challenges on the market, farmers are being advised to diversify their crops as demand on the international market is beyond maize, tobacco, sugar and tea.