Nature has been kind with us now that rains have started falling in many parts of the country. This is good news for an economy that is agriculture based.

But it is obvious that rain alone is not enough to bring the nation the good tidings of an agriculture season. It needs to be complemented with hard work from Malawians. Vice President Khumbo Kachali's advice to the people of Mzimba to slow down on beer drinking and devote their time instead in farming is a timely advice that should be heeded by not only the people of Mzimba but everyone across the country.

That message extends to the whole country because beer drinking at a wrong time and wastage of time in general is not a Mzimba problem only.

While mindful of the fact that beer brewing is also a means for other households to make money to meet their various needs including investing in agriculture, it is important to realise that drinking it at a time that one is supposed to be productive is retrogressive to individual and national development. This is the time Malawians should devote their energies working in their fields to make use of the rains that are falling for a productive agriculture season.

Other than beer drinking, there are a lot of pastimes we love which do not help in personal development. Malawi is a poor country in part because of small contributions from the habits and pastimes of her people. Abandoning such practices when it is necessary to do so and converting the energies in more productive activities could be a way to counter poverty in the country.

A man who spends his time drinking when he is supposed to be working in his field will not harvest enough for consumption and for sale. The more the number of the people who get engaged in non-productive activities, the greater the loss to the nation.

Malawi will never develop through a cataclysmic transformation that changes everything in the twinkling of an eye. It will develop through small, precise and judicious contributions. It will change brick by brick through a change of our practices including through productive use of time.