National Contract Farming Strategy For Malawi.

The National Contract Farming Strategy For Malawi is a national sectoral strategy of Malawi for the period 2007-2012. Its main objective is to achieve food security and economic growth through equitable distribution of benefits arising from efficient and sustainable producer and agribusiness linkages in the agriculture sector.
The vision of the strategy is an increased volume of marketed agriculture commodity through contract farming. Contract farming is a public private partnership driven initiative that draws together all sectors of society to exert their energies for the good of the national aspirations of creating wealth through the operating principles of Transparency and accountability; Creativity and Innovation; Effective Partnerships; Gender Balance and Equity Sustainability.
The objectives of the Contract Farming Strategy will be: - 1. To coordinate supply and demand of agricultural produce/commodities. 2. To facilitate better informed decisions in production and marketing. 3. To facilitate provision of value chain services. 4. To strengthen public-public, private-private and public-private partnerships.
The practical opportunity to extend contract farming to all rural communities rests on the specification of commodities that will be eligible. There is no restriction on the crops that are eligible to contract farming. There are however a number of characteristics that will guide the various stakeholders in ensuring that the crops they are venturing into will provide the intended benefits.
The CFS will provide an enabling environment through a public private partnership institutional framework. The objective is to enable the partnership arrangements promote coordination, collaboration and effective functional linkages among stakeholders at all levels. The major stakeholders are the farming community, contractors (private sector), financial institutions, CSOs and the MoAFS. The strategy contains tables that provide the roles, strategic actions and expected outcomes/results for the five major partners.
A Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system in the Contract Farming Strategy is in place to aid management and communication by allowing the strategy managers to regularly verify/monitor progress towards achieving its objectives, outputs and results; modify working methods and interventions accordingly; and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its operations. It also helps to update plans in response to changes in circumstances affecting CFS. The M & E is also important in accounting for the use of public resources in the CFS. This applies both to external and internal funds. The strategy sets a number of performance indicators that will be used to measure achievement of the CFS objectives.