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Article: Mutharika initiative gains favour; the agricultural revolution initiated by Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has continued to prove his international critics, led by the UK and US, completely wrong. It has also now won him a prestigious Southern Africa award. Lameck Masina reports.(MALAWI)
- Article from:
- African Business
- Article date:
- November 1, 2008
- Author:
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When Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika launched an agriculture subsidy programme aimed at relieving one of the worst food security situations to hit Malawi in 2005, he ran into the teeth of opposition from the UK and the US.
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Faced with a situation that would have left half his country without food, Mutharika ignored the Western pressure and provided his country's beleaguered farmers with cheap fertiliser and other inputs.
Furious US and UK officials refused to fund the programmes claiming they would entail a waste of resources. Mutharika put the needs of his country before academic orthodoxies and went ahead with the ...