Nation Online

Illovo donates maize to district council

Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited has given Chikhwawa District Council 350 bags of 50 kilogramme of maize.

Out of the maize, 300 bags went to Chikhwawa District Hospital and the rest to social welfare office.

The sugar manufacturer in the last quarter of 2012 engaged in a maize growing project in response to the food shortage in the Shire Valley area.

Making the presentation in the district last Friday, the company’s group human resources manager Emmanuel Banda said they made the donation to alleviate the suffering of people in the district.

“We agreed to grow maize for this purpose. As we did not have enough land for the project, we also asked our colleagues at Dwangwa [one of the areas where Illovo Sugar estates is located at 306 kilometres north of Lilongwe] to grow some maize,” said Banda.

Overall, the company spent K43.2 million (about $127 058) to produce 367 tonnes of maize [about 7 338 bags of 50 kilogrammes] and out of the money, K24.2 million (about $72 000) was spent in Dwangwa and K19 million (about $56 000) in Nchalo.

“Out of this, Dwangwa produced 4 535 bags [227 tonnes] whereas Nchalo produced 2 803 bags [140 tonnes]. Some of the maize harvested was destroyed due to high moisture content,” he said, when the company made a donation of 350 bags to the district council, which is the last tranche of the maize grown under irrigation.

Illovo Sugar Malawi has so far distributed the maize to over 5 000 households, translating to 30 000 vulnerable people, based on the National Statistical Office (NSO) calculation of six people per household. The project has reached out to 2 000 orphans.

T/A Ngabu hailed the company for coming to the rescue of people of Chikhwawa by making them food secure.

“If all companies were like Illovo, cases of food insecurity could have been history,” he said at a function that was attended by representatives from the district commissioner’s office and residents of the district.