Image: LUANAR students at Invegrow’s Nangala Farm learning about cannabis, image courtesy Invegrow
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) students recently completed a learning tour of Invegrow at its Nangula Estate, outside Lilongwe. The exercise was designed to equip them with the hands-on and practical knowledge of the cannabis industry.
Thanks to Malawi’s Cannabis Regulatory Authority (CRA), 10 LUANAR attachment students immersed themselves in the surroundings and protocols of an on-the-ground cannabis operation.
They inspected the different stages of cannabis production, starting with fertigation and greenhouses, to observing mother plants and clones. They then proceeded to the open fields where they inspected plants, including those recently transplanted as well as plants that were nearly ready for harvesting.
Wearing blue protective headgear and lab-type green coats, the students looked like professional researchers on an experimentation exercise as they learnt the importance of the need for contamination-free contact and the great care that goes into raising cannabis plants.
They also received demonstrations of caring for cannabis plants beginning in the crucial early stages, with some of them taking down notes.
LUANAR, CRA and Invegrow are in a mutually beneficial research partnership. Invegrow and the CRA often collaborate on cannabis exhibits and expos to impart cultivation and processing techniques and knowledge.
Of late, the two entities have jointly been emphasizing the importance of value addition as the logical next step, sustainability-centred focus for Malawi’s cannabis industry.
Invegrow was the first entity in Malawi to be granted a cannabis agronomy research licence in 2013 and was also one of the first the CRA authorised to cultivate and process cannabis in 2021.Its 31ha estate has a low-cost GACP hybrid growing model that includes greenhouses and outdoor cultivation of THC and CBD flower. It also hang dries and cures flowers to preserve terpenes and cannabinoids at its processing plant.
Its seed-to-sale industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis system utilizes tracking, cloning and sustainable farming methods from cultivation to final product manufacturing.
It works with farmer groups and cooperatives to plant industrial hemp for grain and stock for processing at the Nangula plant in just one of many partnership and communitywide initiatives to ensure grassroots-deep impact. One of its key objectives this year is to continue developing hemp and CBD varieties for Malawi and SADC region.
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