The Network has, in fact, described the initiative as “the last remaining shot for Malawi that can salvage itself from the socio-economic turmoil the country currently finds itself in.”

CISANET Board Chairperson, Herbert Chigona, says in a statement that government must seriously consider supporting the implementation of the project.

“To bring this in context, the 4.4 million lives currently at the stake of hunger and starvation, as quoted by the latest Malawi Vulnerable Assessment Committee (MVAC), surely does not make a good reading in recent and recurring media reports.

“The Network fully endorses the government's establishment of the Megafarms project as a mean to enhance food and nutrition security and sees it as a positive step towards revitalizing the country's agricultural sector,” he said.

Last month, President Lazarus Chakwera launched the 1,069-hectare Katunga-Maseya Cooperative Mega Farm in Chikwawa where smallholder farmers will benefit from sugarcane production.

When he also witnessed first country’s wheat harvest from a megafarm in Dowa last month, Chakwera said that the farming “can enable Malawi to be self-sustaining but this will require each one of us to work hard to achieve the desired results.”

Megafarms is one of the Tonse Alliance administration’s campaign promises to ensure food secure Malawi.