All not lost on maize—Chakwera

President Lazarus Chakwera yesterday continued his crop inspection tour in parts of the Southern and Eastern regions with assurance to farmers that despite climate-induced disasters, the country will achieve food security at national level.

Speaking at a rally at Mpinganjira Ground in Traditional Authority Mponda in Mangochi, he said while Ministry of Agriculture first round crop estimates project a 14 percent drop in maize harvest, some parts of the country, especially in the Central and Northern regions will still produce enough maize.

Chakwera said: “I am aware that we faced various storms this crop growing season which compromised our crop output, but we should not despair, all is not lost.

“Let’s take care of what we have and where there is no food, we [government] shall supply.”

He said despite the drop, estimates show that the country will have harvest more maize this year compared to 2019 yields.

In an interview, Ministry of Agriculture spokesperson Gracian Lungu confirmed that Malawi will indeed harvest about 3.9 million MT of maize this year.

He said: “This is still good news for Malawi because for the country to be food secure, it needs around three million metric tonnes of maize.

“This means from the first round crop production estimate, we have a surplus of 900 00MT of maize.”

Due to poor crop outlook in most parts of the Southern Region, some commentators faulted the Ministry of Agriculture for taking the President to demonstration maize fields, saying this would not give him the reality on the ground.

The sentiments followed pictures of his tour in Thyolo on Monday which showed the President in a demonstration maize field of a lead farmer which had posters for seed, Dekalb.

Reacting to the observations during the Mangochi rally, the President said he was also visiting ordinary smallholder farmers’ maize fields.

Chakwera went on to mention owners of some of the fields he visited at Nchisa Village in T/A Mponda and urged other ordinary farmers to emulate their hard-working spirit.

He said: “I am happy to have interacted with ordinary farmers. Farmers such as Constance Chikoko touched my heart. She is working hard to beat all the challenges and achieve food security at the household level.”

In his remarks, Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe also bemoaned the youth’s interest in farming

Chakwera started the crop inspection tour in  Thyolo on Monday. On Tuesday he toured fields in Zomba.