In the wake of looming hunger, which has been projected to affect over 7 million people this year, members of Parliament have tipped government to set policies that will allow National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to grow maize through contract farming.
A notice which appears in the private member ’s business of Parliament, lawmaker for Nkhotakota South East, Evason Makowa Mwale, says NFRA policies should be revised to mandate and empower it to spend part of its budgetary allocations on the initiative.
Mwale says such a move will help government to address erratic maize availability in the country.
“The winter maize produced shall form part of the national strategic grain reserves without compromising the traditional stocking of NFRA grain silos with maize sourced from rain-fed agriculture and occasional imports,” Mwale says.
But Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water and Development, George Chaponda, has trashed the proposal saying it will not make any change on the already existing mandate of the agency.
“There is literally nothing that can bring change to what NFRA is doing at the moment. Just like Admarc, they are currently purchasing maize, in fact they have also received funding from the World Bank and it is against this that they are buying maize both locally and internationally,” he said
Chaponda said government is already funding commercial farmers like Illovo and also empowering smallholder farmers to reach the capacity where they can produce more and sell the surplus to Admarc and other markets.
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