Civil Society Agriculture Network
First Floor, Anamwino House
City Centre, opposite Zain House
P.O. Box 203, Lilongwe
MALAWI
Tel. (265) 01 775 540/01 770 479
Fax (265) 01 770 492
E-mail cisanet@cisanetmw.org
Website www.cisanetmw.org
Speech by Mr. Willie Kalumula at Civil Society Agriculture
Network (CISANET) 4rd Agricultural Policy Dialogue for the
year 2012 to be held at Cross Roads Hotel on September,
2012
Salutation
 The Master of Ceremonies
 The Principal Secretary for Agriculture and Food Security
 The Principal Secretary for Irrigation and Water Development
 Representatives of the Development Partners
 The Board Members of CISANET
 CISANET members
 Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Civil Society Agriculture Network
(CISANET), I would like to welcome you all here present to our 4rd
Agricultural Policy Dialogue for the year 2012. Special thanks go to those of
you who have been participating and contributing in these dialogues.
Let me also acknowledge the support CISANET gets from the Government
of Malawi, especially the Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security, and also
the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development as evidenced by the
presence of high level officials from the Ministry in our dialogue meetings.
This is a great honour and we hope that most of the policy questions that
we have over the topic of discussion today and needing clarification will be
answered.
We would like to appreciate the support that we receive from our
Development Partners. In this vein we are highly indebted to Irish Aid who
have contributed quite a lot to the revival that we have seen in the network
over the past few months. CISANET is now taking up its role of facilitating
dialogue among sector players. Let me also mention the European Union
who have supported CISANET in the past four years through Action Aid
and CARE International. It is with resources from these two organizations
2
that we are able to meet tonight. CISANET also cherishes the support from
Trocaire, Action Aid and FANRPAN. The support that you have provided is
very much appreciated and we hope that this working relationship will
continue to help CISANET fulfill its role of coordinating the civil society and
take a leading role in policy advocacy in the agriculture sector.
Mr PS, Ladies and gentlemen
For some of us who are not very familiar with CISANET, it is a grouping of
civil society organisations that was established in 2001 to facilitate the
engagement of the CSOs working in the agriculture sector with
Government over policy issues affecting the sector, especially smallholder
farmers. Currently, CISANET has 104 members comprising both local and
international NGOs, farmers’ organisations and interested individuals. It
also has a wider range of partners outside its membership who also have
an interest in policy issues in agriculture.
CISANET was formed to respond to a need that became apparent after the
onset of the multiparty democracy and the development of the Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in 2000. The PRSP, among others,
recognised the civil society as partners of Government in the successful
implementation of the strategy to provide the necessary checks and
balances and also general support to the Government in the agriculture
sector. Therefore, the core mandate of CISANET was to lead in policy
advocacy in agriculture and also to provide a forum where debates and
ideas on agricultural policy among the CSOs can be shared.
Over the years, CISANET has taken part in the formulation of major
Government agricultural policies like the
 Food Security Policy,
 National Biotechnology Policy and also the
 Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp) among others.
Mr PS, Ladies and gentlemen
We have gathered here this evening to discuss a very important topic in the
agriculture sector, The Greenbelt Initiative. The program was introduced by
Government in 2009 with an aim of utilizing the available water resources
we have in this country for irrigation. In addition to that the program was
designed to incorporate other sectors like livestock, aquaculture and also
marketing and processing. However, we at CISANET as is the case with
2
3
other sector feels that the program has derailed in taking off. In as much as
we appreciate that challenges being faced like issues of land tenure,
funding and others, we feel that the involvement of other sector players has
been very minimal. Not much has been done to bring awareness to other
players like the NGOs to involve them in the processes of implementing
this program. We are also concerned with a drastic reduction in budget
allocation to the program. The CISANET budget analysis for the 2012/2013
budget had indicated that that there was an over 75% reduction in the
resources to the program. This will greatly derail the progress and the
target set for this program will not be met. However we believe that with a
continued political will and the active involvement of all the sector players,
this brilliant concept will be achieved. All of us here are aware of the
challenges the irrigation sector which is the main component of this project
has been facing and we at CISANET believe that the answers to these
challenges are not only in the hands of Government but the responsibility of
all of us. This is the spirit behind the ASWAp and we have gathered here
as joint implementers of the ASWAp. We acknowledge the efforts the
Government is putting in addressing these challenges. However, for the
civil society and other sector players, like the private sector and farmers to
effectively support Government, they need to have an in-depth
understanding of the gaps and the structural challenges being faced.
Looking at the programmes that we have received, we will have a paper to
be presented by Dr Henry Chingaipe. I am sure we will have an exciting
time listening to this great son of the land as he will be sharing his thoughts
and finding on this issue.
Mr PS, Ladies and gentlemen
Talking of policy dialogues, CISANET has lined up dialogues over a
number of topics and I would like to encourage you to be patronizing these
meetings. Apart from the dialogue which we are having this evening,
CISANET members and other interested individuals meet regularly in
thematic groups. Currently, CISANET has five thematic areas where
thematic groups have been established. These thematic areas include:
1. Climate Smart Agriculture,
2. Agricultural Market Development and International Trade,
3. Livestock and Dairy Development,
4. Nutrition and Social Protection and also,
5. Budget Analysis and Lobby.
3
4
For those of you who are not yet part of these thematic groups, I would like
to encourage you to get in touch with the CISANET Secretariat for more
information.
Lastly, I would like to wish you a fruitful dialogue and contributions on how
to strengthen the policies that we will be discussing this evening.
Thank you for your kind attention.
May God bless us all.
4