By Prince Henderson, ECM
The Chairman for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Most Rev.Thomas Luke Msusa says gone are the days when the Catholic Church in Malawi solely depended on donor support for its operations hence time has come for the Church to grow and move on using the available land and human resource in Malawi.
Archbishop Msusa of Blantyre Archdiocese was speaking at Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) on 26th, September, 2017, during the opening of a six months training for Farm Managers including the clergy on agribusiness initiative being supported by Missio of United States of America and its being powered by the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS).
“Today, marks an indelible shift in the local Church’s approach towards the usage and management of land for agriculture. The Church in Africa and Malawi has great arable land with good weather and yet, problems of food shortages hit us hard almost every year,” Archbishop Msusa said.
He also said that, it is time to change the Church’s approach and resort to agribusiness which requires professional planning and organizational skills in management of farms.
Archbishop Msusa reported that, Pope Francis in 2013 called upon the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help in reducing food insecurity through sustainable systems and putting structures in place that would ensure increased food production, improve livelihood through positive social impact and make best use of available idle land to generate income for support of evangelization work of the Church.
He thanked Fr. Andrew Small and Catholics in the United Stated of America through their office of the Pontifical Mission Societies for heeding to the request of our Shepherd Pope Francis in 2013.
According to Archbishop Msusa, the Pope’s request agrees with Second Vatican Council Fathers who articulated the need for prudent mobilization of resources from within and outside the Church for sustainability and development of the Evangelical mission of the Church.
National PMS Director for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Rev. Fr. Vincent Mwakhwawa says at least sixteen farm managers from all the eight dioceses in Malawi will spend the next six months at Catholic University of Malawi where they will be empowered to link up agriculture with evangelization.
“We expect them to facilitate the change in the communities around the farms and indeed raise funds for smooth operation of evangelization activities in Dioceses and congregations. Already, these priests and nuns who are managing our farmers do preach but this is a new way of preaching and reaching out to many with the word of God,” said Fr. Mwakhwawa.
One of the participants to the training, Sister Jacqueline Moleni of Teresan Sisters said the training is not only crucial to her congregation but will also benefit the poor who normally seek food from their centre.
John O’Neil who is representing PMS America at the training said Malawi stands to benefit from the initiative in which local farms will be granted with loans to buy equipment, seeds and manage the farms.
“There are several African countries that are implementing this initiative and there is a tremendous improvement in food security. It is our hope therefore that Malawi, which it’s Bishops have already shown enthusiasm in this initiative moving away from poverty levels,” said O’Neil.
CUNIMA’s Management Resource Centre will be responsible for training and managing researches for the initiative which was endorsed by the Episcopal Conference of Malawi.
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