Over 700 farmers have been recruited for the production of sunflower and pumpkins in the country, aimed at the production of cooking oil.

The above comes courtesy of a local trade and investment firm, Project Innovation Centre (PIC) Limited Company, whose CEO said the recruitment aimed at empowering local farmers. The CEO, Kondwani Ngwira, said that some of the recruits are graduates and extension workers from Luanar that have been posted in all farms to provide extension service and guidance on production. “We are only giving contracts to young farmers below the age of 35.” said Ngwira, “Both the interns and farmers will be mentored in financial literacy as an ongoing project helping them understand money handling,”.

 On the other hand, the company aims to have sunflower and pumpkins going commercial and provide an alternative to tobacco, as the green gold industry has not been performing well due to internal and external factors alike. Stakeholders in agriculture concluded that Malawi needs to move from a one cash crop mindset into diversity of output. Ngwira says the project will see the farmers produce one million kilograms of each.