Agricultural Commercialization Project of Malawi (AGCOM) says it is committed to ensure implementation of Government effort in the creation of the much touted of 1 million jobs promised by the Tonse Alliance led government.
AGCOM coordinator Teddie Nakhumwa, said this in Lilongwe during a press conference, saying his project is aimed at transforming small scale farmers to commercial ones.
“When we talk about creation of jobs this is possible because on average we have 100 farmers and if we establish more corporatives, then more jobs will be created completing the 1 million job initiative,” he said.
Nakhumwa updated the nation that his organisation has so far developed the matching grants Operational Manual with clear guidelines for the implementation of the matching grants for producer organizations.
He said the organisation has a developed productive alliance agreement form to ensure clarity on contract requirements and standards volumes and prices.between producer and and organization.
Currently AGCOM has set up functioning independent evaluation committee to ensure independence and transparency the evaluation and selection of proposals for the producer organisations.
He said 22 organisations have been selected , spread country-wide, 13 more passed subject to incorporaton of some changes suggested by the IEC, bringing the total number to 35.
“Six organisations have paid their 30% contribution out of which 3 already received their matching grants and other three will receive in three weeks time as they have just finished paying their contribution,” he said.
On pipeline proposals, AGCOM floated the second call for concept notes 240 organisations submitted their concept notes and 101 concept notes met the eligibility criteria.
