15 January 2024 – The University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) has commended the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) for helping it secure new agricultural industry partners following a successful CAT-LUANAR partnership.

LUANAR Director of Research and Outreach, Dr. Sam Katengeza, cited Bayer and Heifer International as companies that have come forward to partner with the university after being satisfied with the CAT-LUANAR partnership model.

“We appreciate what we have gone through in this partnership. This was a trial for us because it has never happened before. It was a good gesture from the CAT. This has helped us because after you, a number of players who have liked this partnership model have come to partner with us,” Katengeza.

He was speaking on Friday, 12 January 2024, in Lilongwe during a Research Dissemination meeting for six students who were supported under the partnership, signed last year with a $13,500 funding from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World through its affiliate the Agricultural Transformation Initiative.

The CAT-LUANAR partnership aimed at supporting six undergraduate students carry out research on demand and provide quick solutions to unique production challenges faced by smallholder farmers and selected agribusinesses in Malawi.

Specifically, the research targeted six value chains of banana, groundnut, soybean, chia, garlic and mushroom. It was also in partial fulfillment for academic requirements to enable the students graduate later this year.

In their presentations, the students came up with recommendations as solutions to challenges smallholder farmers encounter in Malawi, particularly on specific value chains.

CAT Executive Director, Macleod Nkhoma, called for more collaboration between the industry and academia, arguing that for Malawi to move forward, Research on Demand is key to industrialize the country.

“Most of our partnerships, as CAT, are with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) but I would like to see big companies sitting in a room like this one engaging with the academia just as we have done,” he said.

During the meeting, participants who included Professors, Deans of Faculties and Departmental Heads, Research Supervisors as well as Representatives of Agribusinesses hailed the students for generating quality data and coming up with impressive findings.

The six students who have benefited from the pilot partnership are Lenso Vincent, Robert Kapito, Victor Chataika, Sarah Chinula, Jickson Kawaye and Stella Mkumpha.