Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Member of Parliament for Lilongwe South East Steven Baba Malondera and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Member of Parliament for Nkhata Bay Central Symon Vuwa Kaunda have appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture to supply maize to Admarc depots in their constituencies, saying people are in dire need of maize right now as the hunger situation has worsened.
Speaking to Malawi24, Malondera said many people in his area right do not have maize and the situation is extremely pathetic because people are relying on vegetables while others are walking long distances to town at Malangalanga only to find that there is not maize there.
“It is very unfortunate, as am saying up to date not even a single grain of maize has been sold in Lilongwe South East in Senior chief Kalumbuzi area where we have Bisayi trading centre, people from Kalumbu trading centre, people from Sonkhwe trading centre and many more areas.
“We used our 2021/22 Constituency Development Fund to construct Admarc depot but now they can’t even assign a person to take care of that market. It simply means someone is sleeping on duty at Admarc. And as member of Lilongwe South I am very disappointed with how these things have been done,” explained Malondera.
Malondera added that right now maize is being sold at K800 or 850 per kg while maize flour is being sold at 1100 per kg at Kamphata and this is very expensive for someone who is in rural area hence he is pleading with the Minister of Agriculture to at least engage his officials to give people of Lilongwe South East even just a truck.
“It’s just a matter of sending a truck of maize maybe once in a week and it will make a big difference, it will save people of Lilongwe South East,” said Malondera.
Member of Parliament for Nkhata Bay Central Symon Vuwa Kaunda has also asked government to supply people of NkhataBay with maize as people from this area are also experiencing hunger.
According to Kaunda, the people of Chizumulu, Likoma are suffering of hunger because there is no maize.
“My people in Nkhata Bay go to Admarc as early as 2am only to go back with 10 kg bag of Maize if they are lucky otherwise they go back empty handed. So I had to ask Government to remember the people of Nkhata Bay by supplying maize to our Admarc depots so that the people should be able to buy maize.
“I am also pleading to the government to supply enough maize to make sure areas hard to reach areas are also served. I had in mind areas like Thoto Chisangawe, Lisali, Kachenga, Musumba, which are far away from Nkhata Bay town,” explained Kaunda.
Responding to the concerns raised by the Members of Parliament, Leader of House who is also Minister of Local Government Richard Chimwendo Banda assured the MPs that Government is doing everything possible to make sure the people in their areas have maize and it is in the process of supplying maize to Admarc depots in the said areas.
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