NFRA faces up hill task to fill reserves
National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) says a financial gap is making it difficult to buy maize and fill up its 300 000 metric tonnes (MT) strategic grain reserves (SGR) .
NFRA is expected to fill the reserves following reduced harvest due to the effects of the El Nino weather which has shrunk national food production by about 40 percent.
Mean while, the International Food Research Institute (Ifpri) has advised the Malawi Government and private traders to make maize imports earlier to cushion people affected by wea ther – related shocks.
In the 2024/25 National Budget , Treasury has allocated NFRA K12 billion for maize purchases.
Newly hired NFRA chief executive officer George Macheka in an interview on Wednesday said the allocated funds can purchase an equivalent of 18 461MT.
To buy 300 000MT maize at K650 per kilogramme, The Nation calculations show that NFRA requires about K195 billion. Macheka said they are engaging players in the SGR committee, including the government for more funding.
He said: “We want to exhaust all maize grown through mega farms and
we estimate to get over 30 000MT from this, resources permitting. We will get the other maize from farmers who have started asking us on purchases. This is maize just harvested and carried over from last year.
“So, after assessing movement of stock, we will go for imports. Our capacity is 300 000MT and the battle we have now is to find resources to fill all our reserves. We are in discussion with cooperating partners in the SGR for additional funding. I am sure that by May, we should be able to see how much we have solicited and the tonnage we would buy.”
On March 23 2024, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a State of Disaster in 23 of the country’s 28 districts and indicated that about two million farming households have
been affected while 600 000MT of maize valued at K357.6 billion will be required for the humanitarian response.
Ifpri contends that any delays to import maize will balloon costs due to effects of El Nino across Africa, with maize surpluses expected in Kenya and Tanzania only where many countries may flock for imports.
Titled ‘Act now to address Malawi’s looming food crisis’, the call has been put together by Jan Duchoslav and Joachim De Weerdt from Ifpri Malawi, but also Rodwell Mzonde, former Director of Agricultural Planning Services at Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale was yet to respond to our questions by press time yesterday.
First crop estimates in February showed that maize production will reach 3 608 862MT, representing a 2.8 percent increase from 3 509 837MT recorded in the final round of 2022/23 crop estimate
