Article By: Sam Phiri
Malawi Government has procured over 41,000 metric tonnes of maize on top of the 9,221 tonnes that the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) had in its granaries.
However traders continue to connive with ADMARC officials by buying the maize which was meant to benefit ordinary Malawians for profit.
Minister of Agriculture Allan Chiyembekeza announced on Monday during a press briefing in Lilongwe that the extra purchase is a way of reducing the impact of the hunger situation which has affected over 2.8 million people in the country.
He said the coming in of the new consignment will be able to feed Malawians up to April 2016 when maize from the farmers fields shall be ready for harvest.
Government through ADMARC bought over 50 000 tonnes of maize from the MK4 billion which was allocated in the 2015-2016 national budget but to date it was only left with about 9,000 metric tonnes of maize as of last week.
“From the 50 000 tones, 25,250 tonnes are for the Southern Region while 16,833 are for the Central Region. The Northern Region gets a share of 8,417 tonnes.
“We expect that the maize that is available now will take us through to the end of the lean period in April after which people will have harvested. We will make sure it reaches every selling point so that Malawians, especially those in remote areas, purchase the maize,” said Chiyembekeza.
He however called on Malawians to jealously guard the latest grain consignment against an infiltration of traders by reporting them to authorities.
“Dealing with vendors is not easy, but we will make sure no one suffers. The selling points will be flooded with the maize so that the vendors will not even benefit anything,” said Chiyembekeza.
He added that even though more maize will be available in Admarc selling points, the 20 kilogrammes ration still remains “so that no one takes advantage of the availability to buy and hoard the maize.”
However Information Minister Jappie Mhango who accompanied Chiyembekeza said government is not happy with how the first consignment of maize has been managed.
It is reported that the country requires over four million metric tonnes to feed itself and the 30 percent drop in maize harvest from 3.9 to 2.8 metric tonnes meant a shortfall of about one million tonnes.
