Legislators told to push for maize supply in their constituencies

The Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) has called on legislators in the country to push Malawi Government to supply maize in Admarc depots in their respective constituencies.

HRCC chairperson Robert Mkwezalamba made the call on Sunday 27th August, 2023 during a Roundtable program on Capital FM which was about the availability of the staple grain in Admarc (Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation) depots.

In the program, Mkwezalamba stressed the need for various stakeholders in the country including legislators to play their rightful role of ensuring that their respective constituencies are being supplied with enough maize at all times.

The chairperson further said the lawmakers should be in the forefront to push for enough supply of maize, arguing that the unavailability of maize in Admarc depots has been causing unnecessary panic among constituents.

Mkwezalamba further pointed out that fears that the grain marketer does not have adequate stocks of maize to replenish its markets have also pushed up maize prices across the country.

“One of the roles of members of parliament and councillors is to push government through Admarc to timely provide maize in the markets rather than creating unnecessary panic amongst the people which might further push prices up,” said Mkwezalamba.

However, Admarc General Manager Daniel Makata, has, through the program, assured the general public of continued supply of maize in all Admarc markets across the country.

Makata revealed that the grain marketer has so far been supplied with more than 12,000 metric tons of maize from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) which is to be sold in some targeted markets in the southern region.

The General Manager further quashed reports that Admarc does not have enough maize to meet the demand on the market.

“Let me mention here that the maize that we are currently selling has been provided by the NFRA. And it has come as a surprise really that recent reports indicated that Admarc does not have the grain in it’s warehouses.

“This was really strange because it should have already been known that there was no way we could have stocked our warehouses with maize because government allocates resources to NFRA to purchase the maize and store it in its reserves not Admarc.

“So far we have supplied maize in most of the markets in the southern region which has been the priority where government directed that about 10,000 metric tons of the grain should be delivered there due to the fact that this is the region which was worst hit by Cyclone Freddy hence the need for immediate supply of the grain to caution the people in the region,” said Makata.

Last week, chairperson for Agriculture committee in parliament Sameer Suleiman took members of media in the central region to Malangalanga Admarc warehouses which were captured empty, thereby fuelling fears of an extreme looming hunger.

Source: Malawi24