Maize rationing to save less privileged Malawians – Admarc

Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) has said maize has been rationalized in their selling points in the country to enable the less privileged Malawians access cheaper maize.

ADMARC has been selling 10kgs rationed maize at MK150/kg in their selling depots and many people complain that they don’t buy enough maize and the process is not conducive to solving the hunger situation in their homes.

In an interview, ADMARC Public Relations Officer, Agness Ndovi has refuted that maize rationing in their market points means that ADMARC does not have enough maize to sell to needy Malawians.

“The highly subsidized maize targets people that cannot afford to buy expensive maize from the free market. Therefore, if we allow people to buy in 50kg bags, we will create a market for vendors who will buy from ADMARC at MK150/kg and sell it at the next ADMARC market at MK250/kg.

However,  the PRO observed that some areas are badly hit by hunger which is why ADMARC is still selling rationed maize in those areas and Nkhotakota is one of them in order to enable the less privileged citizens access cheaper maize.

Ndovi said ADMARC is still buying maize and to date they have managed to buy 13,000 metric tones, adding the Corporation is optimistic to reach their target of 16000 tones.

In Nkhotakota, buyers are told to buy 10kgs of maize at MK150/kg per head and the market is open once a week and so far ADMARC has supplied 120 tones of maize for Nkhotakota district.

Member of Parliament for Nkhotakota Central Constituency, Peter Mazizi said he was not aware about how ADMARC is selling maize to people in their markets describing 10kgs per head as very little comparing to sizes of families in the district.

Mazizi said he would consult ADMARC officials and liaise with Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water development and see how they can help the people.

One of the buyers, Gloria Azizi (67) said the 10kg maize which she bought from Nkhotakota ADMARC depot was not enough to feed her 12 member family for a week. She has since pleaded with authorities to consider the amount.

“ADMARC should help us with the process. It is better if we buy 25 kgs per head every week but this 10 kgs is not enough for someone with a large family like mine,” she bemoaned.

The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) recent report indicates that over 1 million people are hit by hunger in the country.

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