Why Grow Hemp in Malawi?
Ideal Climate
From Blantyre to Lilongwe, to Mzuzu in the North, Malawi takes your breath away with each blink of an eye. A landlocked country, Malawi is defined by its topography of highlands split by the Great Rift Valley and the enormous Lake Malawi.
Much of the Malawian countryside is ideally-suited to agriculture – from the hot, humid lowlands to the more temperate climates found in the central and northern areas. In fact, almost 80% of Malawi is reliant on agricultural activities. The soil, the climate and, most of all, the people – with their insight, expertise and abilities – earns Malawi first place as a choice for agricultural investment opportunities.
However, as with many Sub-Saharan countries that rely on crops for sustenance, Malawi runs the risk of soil degradation due to nutrient loss. Bringing hemp into the equation can significantly eradicate this problem. The hemp plant not only cleanses the soil from toxins, like heavy metals, but nourishes the soil to avoid further degradation, while providing opportunities of employment and income.
With the right setup in the right place, Malawi provides cannabis cultivators with an optimal, year-round growing environment – be it indoors, outdoors or in greenhouses.
Much of the Malawian countryside is ideally-suited to agriculture – from the hot, humid lowlands to the more temperate climates found in the central and northern areas. In fact, almost 80% of Malawi is reliant on agricultural activities. The soil, the climate and, most of all, the people – with their insight, expertise and abilities – earns Malawi first place as a choice for agricultural investment opportunities.
However, as with many Sub-Saharan countries that rely on crops for sustenance, Malawi runs the risk of soil degradation due to nutrient loss. Bringing hemp into the equation can significantly eradicate this problem. The hemp plant not only cleanses the soil from toxins, like heavy metals, but nourishes the soil to avoid further degradation, while providing opportunities of employment and income.
With the right setup in the right place, Malawi provides cannabis cultivators with an optimal, year-round growing environment – be it indoors, outdoors or in greenhouses.
Warm People
The only thing warmer than the climate of this near-equatorial nation is its hardworking people, who are epitomised by their gentle, joyful, friendly and humble nature, earning Malawi the title of “The Warm Heart of Africa”.
Your memory of Malawi will always include the warm, hearty smiles of the people with whom you’ve crossed paths. In this agriculturally dominant country, the Malawian people have much to offer with their knowledge and experience in farming – from groundnuts to tobacco. It would simply be impossible to establish a successful agricultural business venture without them.
Legal Market
The Government of Malawi passed the Cannabis Regulation Act, 2020, which decriminalized the cultivation, production, processing, storage, distribution and use of cannabis for medical, industrial and scientific purposes.
However, misconception and misinformation about the different forms of cannabis is still rife, especially in the case of hemp. In particular, there is an unfounded association between “hemp” and “marijuana”. Unlike psychoactive marijuana, which is rich in THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), hemp is, by definition, low in THC and non-psychoactive. Hemp does not cause the mind-altering “high”.
In Malawi, hemp is legally classified as having a THC percentage of less than 1%. High-CBD (cannabidiol) hemp strains are primarily used for manufacturing medicine from high-CBD hemp flowers, while low-CBD hemp varieties are grown for industrial purposes that make use of plant fibres and seeds.
Licensed cultivators must purchase registered seeds from legal distributors, such as Ikaros Africa – we happen to have six registered strains with the highest-CBD percentages available anywhere in Malawi. Specifically, we operate within the legal market by selling registered high-CBD hemp seeds to licensed cultivators in order to produce medical cannabis & fibre-based products.