Recreational smokers consider, "Malawi Gold", as they call it, to be one of the finest forms of the drug.

But the authorities have stopped short of legalising it for personal use.

It will be used to make medicines and hemp fibres, which are used to make clothes, biofuel, paper and other products.

Cannabis sales could supplement the tobacco trade, upon which Malawi is highly dependent.

Other southern African countries, including Zambia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, have relaxed rules on growing the plant.

But South Africa is the only one to decriminalise it for personal use.

Cannabis being grown in Lesotho