Group challenges rice farmers
Rice farmers in the country are failing to maximise their production potential thereby letting millions of kwacha from the global market slip away, the National Rice Development Platform (NRDP) has said.
NRDP chairperson David Kamchacha said this on Tuesday in Lilongwe during a one-day national rice marketing conference and fair.
He said the world market demand for Malawi rice is at 800 000 metric tonnes (MT) per year, but farmers only manage an annual production of 240 000 MT, leaving the market to farmers from other countries.
“This country has 600 000 hectares of land which can be used for rice production but only 10 percent [60 000 hectares] is used thereby undersupplying the market to our own disadvantage,” said Kamchacha.
Ministry of Industry and Trade Principal Secretary Cliff Chiunda said farmers and agro-processors need to improve polishing and packaging of their products such as rice to compete favourably on the global market.
