While government has been saying that it would make sure the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) buys maize from farmers before vendors do, our spot checks shows that vendors are already dominating the market.
This is mainly due to the fact that most parts of the country do not yet have Admarc buying points, forcing poor smallholder farmers to let vendors buy the grain.
At the peak of the hunger crisis that hit the country towards the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development reiterated that it would make sure vendors do not dominate the purchase of the staple grain.
Former minister of agriculture, Allan Chiyembekeza, once accused vendors of hoarding the maize which they had bought from the farmers, at a time the country was experiencing acute food shortage.
And our spot checks in different parts of the country for the past three weeks have found vendors mounting their scales in some remotest parts, buying maize from farmers who have no Admarc depots nearby.
“We are just hearing that Admarc was given money to purchase maize but we have not seen any Admarc depot where we can sell our maize,” said Joyce Luhanga of Traditional Authority (T/A) Kambwiri in Salima.
She added that she was aware that many other poor households are selling the little that they have to vendors who have the money readily available.
“These vendors will be coming back to sell the maize to us at exorbitant prices, but there is nothing we can do because we need salt, cooking oil, relish and many other things,” said Luhanga.
Her sentiments were repeated in many other parts of the Central Region including Dowa, Lilongwe, Mchinji and Kasungu with similar reports coming from parts of the northern and the southern regions.
When we sought her reaction on Monday to why the Ministry of Agriculture seems to be sleeping in as far as the sale of maize is concerned, responsible Principal Secretary (PS) Erica Maganga asked for a questionnaire which she had not addressed by the time we went to press.
Meanwhile, the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) has warned that the hunger that Malawi is expecting this year will be worse if government continues dillydallying on buying maize from smallholder farmers.
However Nkhono-Mvula commended government for reinforcing the regulation of trading of agriculture produce in the country in an effort to bring sanity on the market.
“The efforts taken by the Government of Malawi to regulate the trading of agricultural produce will not only regulate and bring sanity on the market but will also ensure that those who bought the produce can be held to accountable,” he explained.
In an interview yesterday Admarc public relations manager Agness Ndovi was hesitant to admit that vendors have infiltrated the market.
“Most of our selling points are closed this is because we are trying to buy maize from farmers through the mobile markets. However, we appreciate information pertaining to the areas that people are claiming that Admarc is nowhere to be seen,” explained Ndovi.
According to our sources vendors are buying maize from the farmers at K130 per kg while Admarc is purchasing the maize in some areas at K170 per kg.
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