NEWS:

28 Aug, 2015


Minister of Agriculture and Water Development Dr Allan Chiyembekeza touring LUANAR stand
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) is participating in this year’s Agriculture Fair whose theme is Accelerating Agriculture for Economic Transformation.

The Fair which is being held at Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds in Blantyre will run from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th August 2015.

Coordinator of LUANAR’s participation at the Fair Dr Felix Maulidi said participation of the institution in Agriculture Fairs is one of the various initiatives aimed at increasing LUANAR’s visibility.

“We took this as an opportunity to showcase the various innovations and technologies developed by experts at LUANAR,” said Dr Maulidi.

He said only few departments represented LUANAR in this year’s Fair but there is hope that the number will increase in the next fair so that LUANAR innovations, technologies, programmes and services are known both locally and internationally.

Before officially opening the Fair, the guest of honour, Dr Allan Chiyembekeza who is the Minister of Agriculture and Water Development toured selected pavilions and LUANAR’s pavilion was one of the few selected ones. The minister was pleased with LUANAR’s displays. He encouraged LUANAR to take the various technologies and innovations displayed to the farmers.

Making his official opening speech, the Minister commended Malawi Confederation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water development for organizing this Fair.

He said he was impressed with the good quality of the exhibitions mounted in the displays.

“These exhibitions are telling us one message that there is tremendous potential in Malawi to exploit opportunities in both production and value chain activities to take advantage of markets created on the local, regional, and international market,” said the Minister.

He said he was confident that these exhibitions will contribute to realization of lucrative business deals coming out of this year’s Fair.

The Minister further appealed to his colleagues in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development to make deliberate efforts to follow up with the exhibitors and make an analysis of business deals secured in these Agriculture Fairs.

He said this will ensure that these gatherings are not just business as usual but that are taken seriously to see business deals come to good business partnerships.

The country has been undertaking these fairs since 2003 and LUANAR has been actively participated in most of these.

At this year’s Fair, LUANAR was represented by five departments, Agriculture Engineering, Animal Science, Crop Science, Aquaculture and Fisheries and Food and Science and Technology.


Written By: Patricia Nkhoma Ngwale