Funding delays opening of Admarc markets

State produce trader Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) says it will not reopen its markets this month due to lack of funds and ongoing staff recruitment process.

In an interview on Wednesday, Admarc board chairperson Zachary Kasomekera said the parastatal was allocated “inadequate funds” in the 2023/24 National Budget.

He said Admarc needed more money to roll out its operations after the closure last year and subsequent retrenchment of staff in January this year.

Said Kasomekera: “There are two issues on the reopening of Admarc, one is financial resources and two is the recruitment of personnel, which is ongoing.

“On financial resources we did not get the required amount where our budget to get started was K45 billion, but we got only K4 billion.

“The recruitment of staff is ongoing. All the adverts are out and we are now in the actual recruiting process. We anticipate to have recruited 70 percent of staff between May and June.”

However, the board chair said the institution is still finding ways and means of getting extra resources.

“We cannot really give a date because when you are looking for resources, you don’t know where and when you can have them,” Kasomekera said.

But reacting to the development, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chairperson Sameer Suleman blamed the situation on lack of political will by the government to resuscitate the State-owned enterprise.

He said: “One thing we should know is that government is not interested in reopening Admarc. I said it [in Parliament] that K4 billion is not enough to have Admarc up and running, and where are we today?

“One wonders why government is underfunding Admarc, the backbone of farmers in terms of a reliable farm produce market and food security for the country.”

Suleman, who is Blantyre City South East legislator, further wondered why government was introducing farm gate prices when there are no plans to buy the produce.

He said the situation leaves farmers at the mercy of unscrupulous vendors who take advantage of the lack of a market for farmers’ produce.

Said Suleman: “Eventually, they will take the little maize we have to cross the borders and leave the country without food in the next few months.

“Government should have looked at the situation and buy maize and other crops from farmers to at least save the little we have as we have already lost a lot of crops to the cyclones and drought.”

Government announced that the institution, which has been undergoing a restructuring process after its closure last year, would reopen in April, raising hopes to millions of farmers that they would sell this year’s harvest at the market.

In random phone interviews, some farmers in the border districts of Chitipa, Karonga and Dedza said they have already started selling their produce to vendors from Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique due to lack of a market locally.

They said the vendors are buying a kilogramme of maize between K200 and K250, which is much lower than the farm gate price of K500.

Efforts to speak to Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale proved futile as he did not pick up our calls.

In September last year, former minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe shut down Admarc, citing high levels of corruption, theft and professional negligence at the institution.

At the time, the minister said Admarc had 4 063 salaried employees when it needed only 1 500 staff.