Govt admits failing to distribute maize

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Allan Chiyembekeza

Government says it has run into serious problems such that it is failing to distribute maize to Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) selling points.

According to minister of agriculture, irrigation and water development Allan Chiyembekeza, government does not have the capacity to distribute maize since it is running three programmes concurrently.

Allan Chiyembekeza
Chiyembekeza; we have run into serious problems

“We have tried as much as possible to make maize available to most of the selling outlets but we have run into serious problems.

“We have faced challenges to make the maize available as three programs are running like the Farm Inputs Subsidy program (FISP), humanitarian response through WFP all competing with the number of transport we have,” he said.

He however claimed that government has close to 50,500 metric tonnes of the staple grain available in ADMARC depots countrywide and there is also and 60,000 metric tonnes in its strategic grain reserves for humanitarian response.

Chiyembekeza said the maize is enough to feed Malawians up to the next harvesting period in April if there will be no disturbances from vendors who buy more maize.

However, as the minister was making the announcements from the comfort of a conference room in the capital city, Malawians were reportedly still queuing at Admarc depots across the country trying to access the staple grain.