Empowering Root And Tuber Crop Producers And Local Processors To Exploit Commercial Market In Malawi

• The Root and Tuber Crops Development Trust (RTCDT) in partnership with the International Potato Centre and government of Malawi through the Ministry of Agriculture has been implementing a five-year project called Root and Tuber Crops for Agricultural Transformation in Malawi with funding from Irish Aid.
• The project is attaining its goal by harnessing advances in RTC research and development and scale them up through potato, sweet potato, and cassava value chains to meet the demand by farmers, consumers, processors, and traders in Malawi.
• The projects’ overarching  objective blends well with the mission of the Trust which is to spearhead the development of a vibrant root and tuber crops industry through facilitating, coordinating linkages within the entire value chains and enhancing innovations to generate quality products for food security, national and international markets.
• RTCDT role is portrayed in the stakeholder engagement at all levels through advocacy for increased Root and Tuber Crops product value and through developing and lobbying for an appropriate policy and trade environment.
• RTCDT organized Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) Stakeholders and Statutory Regulators Symposium focusing on negotiating regulatory framework for the advancement of commercialization of RTC sector in Malawi.
• Held Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) Producer and Buyer Stakeholders Business to Business (B2B) Market Symposium involving producer and buyer stakeholders that directly have a development relevance on the sector in Malawi.
• We built capacity of our members by supporting them in proposal development for donor/government Agri-financing instruments in order to achieve RTC value addition ambitions. So far one member has accessed the Agriculture Commercialisation (AGCOM) Grant to construct a Cassava processing plant in Machinga. Another 2 groups are in the final stages of achieving the same.
• We lobbied and supported business registration for 16 cooperatives, 44 commercial producers and reach out to 380,000 farming households with 57,000 falling under youth category to easily access commercial markets.
• We have managed to facilitate sustainable value chains and link RTC fresh producers and processors to potential off takers such as Shoprite (potato and sweet potato), Chipiku Store, Peoples, Sana, Food Lovers, Universal Industries, Sunbird Hotels, Galitos, Kips, Crossroads Hotels, Serendib Hotels, Raiply, RadRoy Sauce, Rab Processors, Go Bright, Ori Foods and Kombeza yoghurt who adopted the foods as stabilisers and/or enhancers. These off takers were supplied with good quality Cassava, potato and sweet potato produce and/or processed RTC raw materials.
• We have also secured RTC high end seed and produce market for our members where 8 cooperatives sold seed and/produce through 5 fellow commercial RTCDT members to CADECOM, Pride, Plan International and COOPI, Farmers Agriculture Organization (FAO).
• Through the secretariat, we have recorded a boost in membership renewals of about 381 new members resulting from expected market referral opportunities.

The Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) value chain in Malawi has untapped potential to propel economic growth and socio-economic development of the Country through its contribution to household food security, income, job creation, exports and import substitution. With adequate investment and supportive policy environment; the value chain, including but not limited to, research, production, clean planting material supply, agrochemicals supply, farm machinery, processing, warehousing, transportation, trading, marketing and advertising; can make remarkable contributions to the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and local revenue generation. However, agricultural commercialization is still very low and smallholder farmers continue to sell their produce in low-paying local markets and/or at the point of production through middle men (vendors) rather than selling to a well-structured better-paying markets due to poor access to lucrative market coupled with the pervasive problem of information asymmetry between the producers and buyers.

• The overarching goal is to increase farmer income through enhanced commercialisation of RTC value chains.
• To attain this, we continuously linked producers and processors to potential buyers through effective coordination with stakeholders within RTC value chain for stronger policy support and more effective development investments in root and tuber crops.

We are countrywide furthest north Chitipa to Nsanje and Khotakota to Mchinji. Our members are drawn in all districts except Lilokoma.

Through the Trust, two major symposia focusing on RTC commercialization were conducted;

• Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) Stakeholders and Statutory Regulators Symposium between statutory regulatory authorities and RTC sector stakeholders.
• Regional Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) Producers and Buyer Stakeholders B2B Market Symposium between statutory regulatory authorities and RTC sector stakeholders.
• Further, the Trust developed sustainable market linkages and match opportunities between Root and Tuber Crops (RTC) producers and potential buyers within localized areas by establishing localized and sustainable trade deals between local RTC producers and buyers and facilitated Sustainable business market links between RTC producers and buyers in north.
• To advance our agenda, we lobbied and supported RTC cooperatives, commercial and ordinary members to register their establishments with the minimum 5-stripe model of 1. SME registration with ministry of trade. 2. MRA TPIN. 3. MRA Tax Clearance and 4. PPDA Certification. 5. RTCDT Membership.
• We also facilitated an exhibition of RTC products at the 17th National Agriculture Fair (NAF) in November 2021.