The Cotton Technical Assistance Programme (Cotton TAP) for Africa launched by India last month has extended an opportunity to Malawi to enhance its foreign exchange earnings, Malawi Minister of Industry and Trade, John Bande said.
Mr. Bande said the Cotton TAP is aimed at enhancing capacities in cotton sector in the identified countries through various interventions related to capacity building and technology transfer.
The Minister said Malawi intends to benefit from the programme by using it to boost development of integrated cotton value chain along the lines of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS).
The Malawian Government is quite optimistic that the Cotton TAP would greatly help in increasing the country's foreign exchange earnings, he added.
The Minister said the Malawi Government is keen to promote the domestic cotton sector through launch of up-scaling programme, which has already started reaping results.
He informed that Malawi's cotton output has more than doubled this season over previous season's figures. He said the Cotton TAP would further boost the country's cotton production as well as its foreign exchange earnings.
Besides Malawi, Cotton TAP is to be implemented in Cotton-4 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali), Uganda and Nigeria from 2012 to 2014.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India