By Lovemore Khomo
National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) has said science research results can be useful for growing agriculture sector in the country.
Speaking during media engagement, Acting Director of Planning at NCST Kondwani Victor Gondwe pointed out that some research and its activities can be useful for end users like farmers in order to increase their production.
“Current research activities taking place being funded by government and development partners at both Lilongwe University for Agriculture and Natural Resources-LUANAR and Malawi University of Science and Technology – MUST, we are developing a technology that will be used to dry fruits and vegetables that can be consumed or sold.” He said
“These technologies are coming in because there have been wastage of fruits and vegetables in different areas of the country as farmers did not know the existence of such technologies that could dry fruits and vegetables.” Added Gondwe
Gondwe then emphasized that media is instrumental in building a bridge between researchers and farmers who are going to adopt technologies especially when the stories are informative.
“We are bridging that gap by engaging journalists to do investigative reports on scientific issues. As journalists also need to know what science and technology can do, and able to understand it.” He disclosed
On his part, Andrew Jamali Head of Research at National Planning Commission concurred that research is the only way for taking Malawi development to another level..
He says research on science, technology and innovations is part and parcel of Mw2063 which is Malawi’s long term developmental agenda hence need to embrace it.
Jumali says research being one of the pillars and focus areas will help to generate evidence for both medium and long term planning and coordination for effective learning and feedback mechanism, and ensure monitoring and evaluation systems developed and implemented.
He explained “We work for change for agenda that will motivate the country to believe that it is possible to accelerate development in Malawi by identifying and scaling up development initiatives that have positive impact including research of agriculture.”
Then, he advised journalists take science reporting to another level. “You have a job to interpret science issues to locally understandable narratives, so that information end users benefits from it.”
