President Lazarus Chakwera says Malawi is still food secure despite a drop in maize production from 4.5 million metric tonnes last year to 3.8 million metric tonnes this year.
According to the president, government also has distribution systems to move the maize to every household when need arises.
Chakwera said this yesterday after visiting National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) in Kanengo to appreciate the agency’s state of readiness ahead of procurement and storage of this year’s maize yield.
The visit to the silos came after Chakwera undertook a national crop inspection tour over the past two months when he visited crops in 10 districts.
Yesterday, Chakwera also visited Tembwe depot of Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) in an effort to form a comprehensive picture of food availability across all storage and cost centres in the country.
“I am glad to reiterate that despite a downward maize production from 4.5 million metric tonnes last year to 3.8 million metric tonnes this year, Malawi is still food secure.
“Your government has in place the right distribution systems and policies to systemically move the grain reserves to every household when need arises,” Chakwera said.
He added that during the trip to the Kanengo silos, he also learnt of the financial and administrative challenges affecting operations of NFRA.
He, however, noted that the agency is using the resources approved by Parliament to rehabilitate the silos and bring them back to full capacity.
“I firmly believe that post-harvest storage remains a key component in the food ecosystem. This informs my administration’s policy priorities in investing adequately towards NFRA’s operations to ensure that we are not only producing enough food but storing it well at the same time,” said Chakwera.
During Chakwera’s crop inspection tours, chiefs and political leaders told the president that there is hunger in Malawi as people failed to produce enough food following floods which damaged crops.
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