Maize rotting in Admarc’s DNA

It has almost become an annual ritual that during the lean period—November to March—government announces that several thousand metric tonnes of maize under the embattled Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) is rotten. Maize rotting at Admarc is a microcosm of the despicable state of the once biggest State firm. Instituting a commission of inquiry to establish if it is true that maize has rotten would just amount to spending good money on bad.

For starters, Admarc was established in 1971 by an Act of Parliament with the objective of carrying out trade in smallholder agricultural commodities, including farm inputs, at subsidized prices and creating ready markets for smallholders. But over the years, rocked by mismanagement, corruption, theft and abuse of resources, the parastatal has been a pain in the neck of its owner—the Malawi Government on behalf of its people—and has dismally failed to fulfil its mandate. Shutting it down to start from a clean slate could not have been a better thing to do. But materialising the dream has so far been chaotic.     

Writing in My Diary of June 12 2021 in this paper, Kondwani Kamiyala put it aptly that Admarc is more rotten than its maize. Stating that the commodity trader competes with itself when it comes to playing with food, Kamiyala said one would be tempted to think there is a syndicate which benefits from the rot.

Indeed, for years, maize rotting in Admarc’s hand has become part of running of affairs at the institution. Maize rotting is in Admarc’s DNA. In defence, the grain trader or its managers would then blame the development on the high moisture content in the maize at the time of purchasing the grain.

In 2016, the Natural Resources Parliamentary Committee took Admarc to task for selling rotten maize on the market. It was a whopping 7 000 metric tonnes (MT) worth K2.1 billion at the current price. Admarc played down the scandal by saying the maize was not rotten but only discoloured. But an assessment report of the grain reserves across the country done by donors led by USAid revealed that almost 4 821MT was not in good condition, 2 910MT was characterised as dust and chaff, 419MT had high aflatoxin levels while almost 1 500MT of maize was found to be no longer of use as it had been in the silos for too long and was too dry for consumption. Some of the maize had been in the silos since 2015.

Two years later in 2019, Admarc was found on the wrong side of things again. It was forced to discharge 1 000 MT of maize in Mwanza because it was rotten. In September 2021 it came to light that 7 000MT of maize Admarc had bought locally was rotten. But the organisation’s management said the grain was not rotten but only discoloured.

This week, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale reported that 10 000 MT of maize in the custody of Admarc have gone bad. It is not fit human consumption. This is part of the maize which the ever broke Admarc, which has been perpetually seeking bailouts from government, used as collateral for obtaining loans from commercial banks and the Export Development Bank.

With government having pegged Admarc’s maize at K300 per kilogramme, the 10 000MT would rake in K3 billion. The rotting of the maize this year means Admarc and its line ministry have not drawn lessons from previous experiences.

The sad part of all this is that the maize has rotten at a time as many as 3.8 million or 20 percent of the population faces high levels of acute food insecurity.

But looking at what has been happening at Admarc over the past six months, what would one expect? On September 1 2022 government suspended all operations at the parastatal over corruption, abuse of company finances, theft and negligence by employees. All members of staff were instructed not to report for work. Who was watching over the condition of the maize all this time? Then on January 30 2023 government announced that Admarc had fired all its employees as part of a restructuring process.

If maize has been rotting at Admarc during all those years when everything was normal, it is naïve for anyone to expect the organisation would have performed better with very skeletal administrative staff manning the troubled entity. It was foolhardy for government to expect miracles to happen with all the tempests that have rocked Admarc since it was shut down on September 1 2022.

There are now suspicions from certain quarters such as the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture that the maize might not be rotten and that some people are just trying to cash in on the matter. The committee has thus called on government to set up a commission of inquiry to probe the said rotting of the maize with a view to establish the truth about it. This is unnecessary. Government will just be spending good money on bad. The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture has powers to check the condition of the maize that is said to be rotten wherever it is. It should do just that. No more, no less.