By Burnett Munthali

In his presentation titled ‘If I were the President’ at the Business Talk, businessman, Jimmy Korea Mpatsa, says Malawi’s poverty is by choice, stressing that the Presidency holds the key to solutions to most of the problems in Malawi.

He says in Malawi, everything revolves around the presidency hence problems like blackouts and all others can be resolved by presidential directions.

Mpatsa also spoke about the country’s food insecurity and low productivity because the country leaves much of the farming into subsistence farmers who depend on the rains.

He also talks about Admarc which he uttered has dysfunctional deports and often has low financial capacity to purchase produce from farmers in time.

On trade policy , Korea Mpatsa voices the restrictions on exports of agricultural commodities discourages large scale commercial farmers who are risk averse as a result of policy inconsistencies.

He pronounced that if he were President, when South Sudan and Malawi agreed on exports of various agricultural products, he would have created a special purpose vehicle to ensure production of the required volumes to ensure consistent supply and secure the market that was lost when only 5 percent of the required volume was met.

About 70 per cent of Malawi’s population currently lives below the $2.15 international poverty line with about 46 per cent of its national income being held by the top 20 per cent of the population.

Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite making significant economic and structural reforms to sustain economic growth. The economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which employs over 80% of the population, and it is vulnerable to external shocks, particularly climatic shocks.

Why vote for a President? A presidential election is far more than a popularity contest or a struggle for party power. It’s a profound choice of goals for the nation. Do we want someone who can hold the same course, or chart a new course, or have no clear course at all? Is it possible that someone could respect and speak for our many different visions and be president of us all?

Investing in education, infrastructure, research, and development. Countries can build stable, growth-oriented economies by doing so. Public policies that promote international trade can also diversify an economy’s income and reduce its dependence on one industry or market.

Many factors interact to create a food insecure situation in Malawi: chronic poverty, low agricultural productivity, poor infrastructure, ecological constraints, inappropriate economic policies, limited arable land other demographic and social factors.

There is low agricultural productivity (especially in peasant farming) because of the use of traditional technologies, and other factors. And this results in food insecurity in many households. However, Malawi must implement different programmes and policies to increase productivity in agriculture.

For some time, Admarc has been faced with challenges bordering on alleged inefficiency and mismanagement and has consistently asked the government for bailout. Two years ago, the parastatal announced a turnaround strategy where, among other things, it wanted to revive its agro-processing and value addition activities.

Malawi trade policies on goods for which international trade is restricted include: synthetic animal feedstuff, rice, specified vegetables ands legumes, maize, live fish, including the eggs and spawn thereof, seeds for planting, wild animals, wild animal trophies and wild animal products.

Malawi and South Sudan in June 2021 signed a trade agreement that aimed to see Lilongwe exporting its surplus food to Juba to help ease a widening deficit of cereals in Africa’s youngest nation.

The two countries officially signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Juba that allowed Malawi  to export to South Sudan products such as maize, maize flour, sugar, rice, groundnuts and beans but Malawi failed.

The deal also allowed South Sudan to export refined petroleum products to Malawi, a move which was expected to cut costs of importing from the Arab world, according to Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe but all was lost due to lack of proper planning and capacity.