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The agricultural sector of Malawi continues to suffer from negative perceptions. Youth and women find that farmers do backbreaking labour, and in return only reap minimal benefits. Instead, women and youth would rather settle in urban areas to work in white-collar positions and find better employment opportunities. Both women and youth need to see that there are opportunities in the agricultural sector that are successful and profitable. With agriculture being the main sector driving the economy, it is important that the women and youth be more involved within the agricultural sector through agribusinesses.

Cotton is one of the Major crop in Malawi, which ranks as the fourth foreign exchange earner in the country following tobacco, tea and sugarcane. The cotton platform under Malawi Agriculture Partnership (MAP) was formed with the aim of facilitating coordination among players in the cotton value chain in Malawi. The cotton platform acts as a catalyst for desired change through the implementation of innovative solutions which have a facilitating growth and development of cotton industry through collaborative efforts among the value chain players. The goal of the Cotton Platform is to contribute to the reduction of poverty of 60,000 smallholder farmers in the cotton subsector. Cotton demonstration were mounted in six ADDs; Lilongwe, Blantyre, Shire Valley, Machinga, Karonga and Salima. The cotton platform facilitate extension services among others through the cotton demonstrations.

Smallholder farmers in Malawi continued to face market related challenges. As such African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC) organized a farmers’ conferences in Lilongwe and Mzuzu. The meetings were held at Crossroads Hotel and Chatonda Lodge in Lilongwe and Mzuzu respectively. AICC conducted these meetings in order to create platform for stakeholders including farmers, buyers, input suppliers, processors and consumers to discuss and plan for 2018/19 commodity markets.