By Vincent Khonje
With the tobacco industry facing some challenges across the global, smallholder farmers can find solace in alternative crops thanks to Pyxus Agriculture Malawi (PAM).
After 145 years in tobacco industry Alliance One Tobacco announced its transformation into a company called PAM which has the objective of identifying alternative crops that farmers can grow on a sustainable and compliance manner, with fully traceability and help the farmer generate additional income.
During an open day on Wednesday where PAM partners visited the company’s two farms of Lisandwa in Kasungu and Mpale at Madisi in Dowa, PAM Managing Director Ron Ngwira said they decided to bring partners, stakeholders and financiers to the field to appreciate the journey the company has embarked on as it goes along with smallhorder farmers.
“PAM is a new player hoping to engage existing farmers and using existing financial institutions who have been previously working with them in tobacco farming, and help them diversify and grow alternative crops,
“More importantly we just don’t want to be a commodity trader but to add value as we intend to sell the final product,” said Ngwira.
The company currently is into crops like beans, soybean, groundnuts and sunflower, and other businesses like forestry, biomass and intend to go into industrial hemp depending on Malawi’s legislation atmosphere as time goes.
PAM Value Added Agriculture Products Division Executive Vice President Jose Maria Costa said what the company is trying to do is focus on unregulated crops and markets and creating something similar to Integrated Product System (IPS) in tobacco.
“The mission is to utilize our agricultural expertise to strengthen our relationships with contracted farmers and continue pursuing the production of high quality agricultural products to provide to our customers,” said Costa.
Director of Strategic partnership Jeremy Venable at Feed the Future, which is working in agriculture diversification, said PAM’s every initiative is intended at increasing income and productivity and in the end improve farmers’ livelihoods.
“What they are showing is that the same expertise and resources in tobacco you can also make big improvements in other crops. Hopefully there will be huge impact both at smallhorder farmer level and macroeconomic level,” said Venable.
Together with its partners there is seed multiplication in crops like beans, sunflower and groundnuts and some trials for soybean aimed at having best varieties that are being demanded on the market which can be released to farmers to grow