The United States Aid for International Development – USAID – has announced six new aid packages to improve Malawi’s agriculture sector.

US Ambassador to Malawi Ms. Jeanine Jackson said the new packages will help towards the attainment of food sufficiency among the marginalized and less privileged.

Ms. Jackson said among others, the packages will help improve the agriculture diversification program by the ministry of agriculture and dairy farming.

“In the next few weeks, the US government will launch six new feed the future initiatives, in many areas across the country, to complement government’s efforts of ending hunger,” she Ambassador Jackson soon after President Joyce Banda launched the Feed the Future initiative in Lilongwe on Thursday.

Ambassador Jackson said the aid package include support to the Agriculture Sector Wide Approach-ASWAP.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Professor Peter Mwanza has since commended the US government for the funds and promised to implement measures that will ensure that the money is fully utilized.

The support is one of the US government’s major assistance to the Malawi’s agriculture sector, besides its budgetary support through the Common Approach to Budgetary Support-CABS.