Stakeholders Biosafety Bill Consultative Meeting

Speech by Mr. Willie Kalumulaat 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 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 memberscomprising 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 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 andwe 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:

Climate Smart Agriculture,
Agricultural Market Development and International Trade,
Livestock and Dairy Development,
Nutrition and Social Protection and also,
Budget Analysis and Lobby.

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.