The country has for the third year running registered another pumper
maize harvest at 3.661 million tonnes- representing more than 1.461
million tonnes of excess requirement. Malawians need 2.2 million tonnes
to satisfy their domestic maize requirement.
Agriculture and Food Security Principal Secretary, Andrew Daudi, has
attributed such excessive production to the subsidized fertilizer
programme and increased use of organic fertilizers by farmers.
Gondwe said Malawi would be duty-bound to export some of the maize
excess to domestic requirements to Zimbabwe, where he said another
hunger situation looms this year following poor harvests.
Zimbabwe, like Malawi, is a member state of the Southern African
Development Community (Sadc), which compels it and other member states
to be the first line of call to fellow members in cases of national
calamities including hunger.
It is a very positive thing, and shows how committed this
administration has been in many areas including economic development
and food security. This year, we have again produced some hamper maize
harvest part of which we may export to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has not
harvested enough this year, said Gondwe.
The Finance Minister did not elaborate on the actual figures that could be exported.
Analysts have linked the persistent food shortages in Zimbabwe to the
seizure of white owned farms, a development they cite for leading to
decreased crop productivity. The situation has prompted the World Food
Programme to initiate various interventions in the bid to save people
from starvation.
In a related development, Gondwe revealed that government was in the
process of establishing a public food storage company whose main goal
would be to provide extra space for crop storage.
Gondwe said, under the arrangement, people would be able to deposit
their maize and other crops at the storage facilities for safe keeping,
after which they will be getting a receipt.
They will, then, be able to use the receipts (as evidence of property
ownership) as collateral with commercial banks. But we are still
discussing the modalities, which are at an advanced stage, and will
announce the modalities later, said Gondwe.
This follows concerns from some quarters, including the Council for
Non-Governmental Organisation (Congoma) and the Malawi Economic Justice
Network, who want the country to invest in food storage mechanisms
because pumper crop yields end up rotting due to inadequate and poor
storage facilities
Congoma's Executive Director, Ted Nandolo, for instance, claims that
over half of last year's bumper maize yield got lost through rotting,
or couldn't be properly stored due to lack of space and ended up
catching moisture.
We really feel that we need to invest in storage facilities for us to
be able to retain our maize crop harvests. This problem creates
problems for people and could be responsible for the reports of hunger
we get from various communities when government maintains we still have
maize stocks, queried Nandolo.
Nyasa Times/AfricaNews
Post published in: News