Sam Kawale, Gada Farm, Mchinji

Recently, I visited Gada farm. The Malawi National Service, a developmental arm of the Malawi Defense Force, runs the Gada farm. The farm is in Mchinji district.

The Malawi government acquired the farm in 2018, and sits on 1,650ha.

Gada farm, which relies on rain-fed agriculture, plans to do winter farming through irrigation and has therefore started installing the first of three center pivots.

The Malawi National Service is working in collaboration with the Zambian National Service, which has a similar program in Zambia.

On top of crop production, the farm has a livestock farm with 275 livestocks.

The farm has earmarked the following this coming year:
• 300 ha for maize production
• 60ha for soya beans
• 60ha of wheat
• 12ha for macadamia which will be under drip irrigation

There are plans to increase its herd to 400 cattle from the current 275 cattle.

To enhance production and efficiency, the farm is investing in value addition equipment, starting with maize flour packaging as well as heavy-duty mechanization equipment.

For the last growing season {2023/2024}, the farm produced 7,459, which has been deposited into the SGFR.