Center for Social Concern has called upon Members of Parliament to support the Tonse Alliance government to end corruption and depoliticize ADMARC if they really want Malawi to be free from hunger.
The appeal was made on Friday Lilongwe during a Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture Conference on ADMARC and the right to food which the Organization conducted with different stakeholders and experts on Agriculture debate on the role of government and its agencies in ensuring right to food for all Malawians.
The conference in one way, was to highlight on key objectives which they included creating a debate on the effectiveness of ADMARC and also a debate on Right to Food bill.
Speaking after the meeting, Director of Center for Social Concern Dr James Ngahy said ADMARC has a very critical role to play in ensuring that there is availability of food in the country in order to support the right to food to all Malawians.
Ngahy added that CFSC has noted through their research that ADMARC is facing numerous challenges to implement its operations therefore there is need for K300 billion to support the institution.
He added that due to the lack of funds in the institution, farmers have been victimized because they are failing to sell their farm produce at a standard price in order to make profits, instead they are selling them to vendors who are abusing the standard price.
“We are calling upon all members of Parliament including the committee on Agriculture to help government and the social concern to advocate the right to food bill and that, ADMARC should provide its operations without injuring farmers,” he explained
Parliamentary Committee Chairperson on Agriculture, Samir Suleman, commended the CFSC for conducting such an important meeting so that they should discuss what is really lacking in Agriculture sector and adopt good strategies to support the sector.
Suleman said the committee has mandate to oversee the government efforts in implementing the Agricultural programs.
He then expressed worry over corruption and fraud in ADMARC operations, and hoped that the new administration will seriously work on that by restructuring the sector.
He added that as a committee they are committed to offer full support to the right to food bill but also to support all the projects in the Agriculture sector because ADMARC is the key market player when it comes to food security in the country.
On his part, Chief Executive Officer for ADMARC Felix Jumbe said ADMARC will strive hard in order to rebuild trust with farmers by engaging with them in their operations
He added that people will always say Malawi is Agro based country but yet they are failing to acknowledge and analyse what that means.
