The Catholic bishops in the country have said it will be an act of injustice to subject poor Malawians to the repayment of a loan for tractors and maize shellers that the government acquired but are nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
In 2011 the government acquired 177 tractors and 144 maize shellers worth US$55 million and US$40 million, respectively, from India, payable in 40 years for smallholder farming mechanisation.<\/p>\n
But when the outspoken Rumphi East Member of Parliament, Kamlepo Kalua, inquired on the whereabouts of the equipment last December, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Allan Chiyembekeza told Parliament that the government followed all the procedures in selling the equipment.<\/p>\n
However, in the pastoral statement released on Sunday, the bishops demanded an inquiry on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are concerned about the conflicting reports regarding the whereabouts of the farm tractors and corn-sheller machines which the government purchased to improve agricultural production. We, therefore, call upon the government to investigate this matter,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
Apparently, some top politicians from both the government and opposition side in Parliament plus top civil servants were mentioned as buyers of the said equipment.<\/p>\n
On Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp), the bishops appealed to the government to reform it or develop an exit strategy.<\/p>\n
But they were quick to say whatever reforms the government decides to undertake, must promote interests of poor people.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo become a hunger free nation, it is high time the government seriously considered investment in large scale commercialised irrigation farming infrastructure. This will create an opportunity for many Malawians to grow crops at least twice a year. This we believe is the only way of making food readily accessible and cheap,\u201d the bishops said.<\/p>\n
The statement said Malawi is blessed with enough natural resources which if properly utilized, it will solve the problem of persistent hunger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good waters and plenty of fertile land lying idle are assets either underutilized or not used at all. We do not need to remind our leadership and the general citizenry that Malawi is a country that largely depends on agriculture,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
The bishops then challenged experts in the fields of agriculture and irrigation to design and promote policies and programmes that can make the country a hunger free nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to point out that government\u2019s every policy and action should be measured on the basis of whether it promotes human life, enhances human dignity, particularly for the poor and the vulnerable,\u201d reads the letter in part.<\/p>\n
The bishops say it is worrying that people are spending more time waiting in queues to buy maize in Admarc markets which makes them less productive in their fields or work places saying this might be a recipe for another food shortage in the coming months.<\/p>\n
In the statement, the bishops also expressed their worry at the reports of women with children sleeping at Admarc markets with the hope of buying maize the following day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find this very dehumanizing and unacceptable. Besides maize shortage, there are reports of corruption where private traders connive with some Admarc officials to purchase maize in large quantities and thereafter sell it at exorbitant prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very inhuman to enrich oneself at the expense of the suffering poor Malawians. Furthermore, what we find most depressing are utterances of assurance of the availability of maize which are not supported by the situation on the ground,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
They, ther e fore, urged government agencies such as Admarc to place the available maize in strategic markets as the right to food applies to everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Catholic bishops in the country have said it will be an act of injustice to subject poor Malawians to the repayment of a loan for tractors and maize shellers that the government acquired but are nowhere to be seen. In 2011 the government acquired 177 tractors and 144 maize shellers worth US$55 million and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20646,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20637\/revisions\/20646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}