But government and the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) have rubbished the warning, saying the country has sufficient food reserves.
The committee’s chairperson, Vitus Dzoole-Mwale, told The Nation in an interview on Wednesday that after their recent tour of several districts in the country, they found out that some areas have already started experiencing food shortages, also aggravated by the high price at which Admarc is selling its maize.
Dzoole-Mwale said their findings also show that people want government to reduce the Admarc maize price. The corporation is selling the commodity at K1,500 per 50 kg bag when it acquired the same at K1,000 per 50 kg.
Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture Patrick Kabambe and Admarc chief executive officer Charles Matabwa on Wednesday described the findings as “untrue” and “rubbish”.
But Dzoole-Mwale cited Mzimba, particularly the area around Viphya, and Karonga in the North; Kasungu’s Traditional Authority Simulemba area in the Centre; and Chikwawa in the South as some areas where people are already facing hunger.
Apart from assessing the food situation, the committee’s country-wide tour also looked at problems facing the subsidised fertiliser and seed programme.
Dzoole-Mwale said the committee, which visited all the districts in the North, eight in the Centre and five in the South, found out that the programme “is a total mess, was not properly strategised and is highly politicised”.
“The programme was highly politicised, particularly in areas where there are Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Members of Parliament. For example, in Ntchisi-Chiseka and Ntchisi-Chimutu, more coupons were issued against all the chiefs in Lilongwe. MCP chiefs did not receive [a lot of] coupons,” claimed the committee chair.
Dzoole-Mwale, who said the committee will present its findings to Parliament once it reconvenes, disclosed that last week the committee summoned Deputy Agriculture Minister Bintony Kutsaira to brief him on their findings for government to promptly act on the same. But, according to Dzoole-Mwale, the deputy minister did not turn up.
The Nation could not reach Kutsaira yesterday on his phone to comment on the issues and why he failed to appear before the committee.
On his part, Kabambe said government believes the country has enough food to serve Malawians up to the next harvesting season.
“Of course, there are just few households which do not have food, but that is far less than the situation in the past,” he said.
He trashed the findings on the input subsidy programme, saying the ministry can produce the number of households that were registered to receive coupons in each district.
“The subsidy programme is for Malawians regardless of their political or religious affiliations. Where we had information that not enough coupons were received, we went back to address the anomaly,” he said.
Matabwa, on the other hand, described the committee’s report as “a lie”.
Said the Admarc CEO: “Let’s rubbish that. Let’s not wish to have hunger. There is no hunger in the country. We have enough maize and I am even worried that if the situation remains as it is, where will Admarc sell the other maize?”
Matabwa admitted Admarc is selling its maize at K1,500 per bag, but said the price is the same as that of last year. He said the corporation will even consider raising the tariff further in future.
“We bought the maize at K20 per kilogramme. We have to buy sacks and chemicals; pay for transport costs to transfer the maize from the villages to our depots; re-pay the money we borrow to buy the maize; and pay for labour as well as the cost for keeping the maize.
“All that is money and this year Admarc did not get subvention from government. We have to make profit to run [the company]. If anything, we will increase the price. It can’t be less than that,” said Matabwa.
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