Business
Govt eyes industrial growth through revival of idle community factories
October 26, 2021 / Chisomo Phiri
The Ministry of Trade has embarked on a drive to revive idle community factories created as cooperatives under the One Village One Product (OVOP) initiative.
Industry Minister, Roy Kachale Banda, has said that government has taken this step because it is aware how much these factories can contribute to the growth of the manufacturing industry in the provision of value addition to the products that the country otherwise exports in raw form.
Kachale made the remarks in Blantyre when he toured Mankhamba Bee Keeping and Kunthembwe Producers and Marketing Limited Cooperatives where he learnt that the two institutions are failing to operate because of lack of electricity and reliable water supply among other challenges, despite being equipped with the necessary facilities for value addition of a number of agriculture products.
” We will invite the Ministry of responsible for energy as well as officials from the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) to a roundtable discussion to expedite the process of supplying electricity to the facilities”, said Kachale.
The minister also disclosed that his ministry is in the process of identifying experts to train cooperatives on best practices in processing competitive and quality products besides orienting them with business management skills, a common challenge among cooperatives.
Mankhamba Bee Keeping Cooperative has a warehouse but need machinery and electricity to start processing and add value to the honey they already produce while Kunthembwe Producers and Marketing Limited Cooperative has not been connected to the electricity grid, despite being furnished with a warehouse and equipment for processing groundnuts into cooking oil and groundnut flour.
Implemented mostly in rural areas to accelerate value addition processes, the OVOP initiative, also formed cooperatives to run the factories and create employment for the country’s rural population.
OVOP has contributed to growing rural economies and attracting people away from migrating to urban centres in search of economic opportunities.
Value addition is one of the key areas of focus for the attainment of the country’s long-term objective of ” an inclusively wealthy nation” under the Malawi 2063 agenda.
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The establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem, but not necessarily the one that existed before mining began. In many cases, complete restoration may be impossible, but successful remediation, reclamation, and rehabilitation can result in the timely establishment of a functional ecosystem.
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Remediation:
The cleanup of the contaminated area to safe levels by removing or isolating contaminants. At mine sites, remediation often consists of isolating contaminated material in pre-existing tailings storage facilities, capping tailings and waste rock stockpiles with clean topsoil, and collecting and treating any contaminated mine water if necessary.
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