LILONGWE--US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in Malawi Sunday, has announced a US $46m boost to the Malawi agriculture sector.

"Today I am pleased to announce that in the next three years the United States is going to invest US $46m to strengthen the entire agricultural sector in Malawi," she said.

Clinton made the announcement after visiting a Feed the Future project, an initiative by the Obama administration's Global Hunger and Food Security, just outside the capital, Lilongwe. She said the US government has supported Malawian diary farmers for the past decade and "the support has increased milk production by 500 per cent, thousands of farmers have benefited".

Earlier Clinton met with Pres Joyce Banda where she emphasised "the desire by the United States not only to assist President Banda in her goal to improve quality of life for the most vulnerable Malawians but also to achieve self-sufficiency for all Malawians".

Pres Banda thanked the US government for the "confidence it has in Malawi's new administration". Banda also thanked Washington for the reinstatement of the US $350.7m energy deal that was suspended following the unprecedented July 20 demonstrations against her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, that saw police gunning down 19 unarmed protestors.

Banda who assumed power following the sudden death of Mutharika on April 5 - she became southern Africa's first female president and the continent's second after Liberia's Ellen Johnston Sirleaf  - also shared her vision for Malawi which, she said, "was to eradicate poverty through economic growth and wealth creation".

She said Malawi was committed to a quick economic recovery programme.

Clinton, the highest ranking US official to visit Malawi since the re-introduction of multiparty democracy in 1994, left Malawi for South Africa at the last leg of her five-nation African tour. Before visiting Malawi she visited Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.