Most smallholder maize farmers are at risk of facing food shortage this year due to premature maize harvesting (PMH) driven by food insecurity, theft, economic pressures and climate variability, findings of a new study show.
Further, the findings contained in a new policy brief published on April 9 and conducted by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) through its Centre for Agricultural Re-search and Development (Card), show that apart from increasing the risk of mycotoxin contamination, mould infestation, reduced nu-tritional quality, PHM also leads to lower market value. They note that most of the prematurely harvested maize has been sold at below the K1050 farmgate price per kilogramme.
“It was revealed that 84 percent of farmers sold their maize at between K500 and K800 per kg, which is less than government approved minimum farmgate price of K1 050 per kg.
“Moreover, immature maize grains increase drying costs and require excessive pesticides after harvest,” it reads.
The Card team, led by its director Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri, col-lected data from 291 randomly selected smallholder farmers, with 32 percent in Blantyre and 68 perent in Lilongwe. The study was conducted between April 1 and 6 2025.
Reads part of the findings: “The brief revealed that above half [66 percent] of the farmers interviewed will become food insecure by November 2025, while most farmers [96 percent] will become food insecure by December 2025.”
The study noted that by January 2026, all interviewed farmers will be food insecure unless alternative sources of food are adopted such as winter cropping and other social safety nets.
Besides creating a self-perpetuating cycle of food insecurity through post-harvest losses, accounting for direct physical losses and quality, the brief also bemoans that PMH leads to income loss-es.
Titled ‘Immature crop harvest: Implications on post-harvest losses, quality, safety and food security in Malawi’, the brief has since sug-gested seven evidence-based policy options aimed at reducing post-harvest losses, improving grain quality, and ensuring household food security.
Reads the brief: “Key policy options include strengthening community policing and enforcing bans on green maize sales, promoting winter cropping, enhancing targeted agricultural extension services,
“…designing effective social safety nets for cushioning farmers from food shortages, promoting community-based storage solutions, de-veloping reliable and accessible markets, and investing in research to breed crop varieties resistant to pre- and post-harvest stress.”
Approximately 89 percent of surveyed farmers harvested early pri-marily to prevent theft.
The brief came a day after the Ministry of Agriculture released farmgate prices, but second crop estimates, also show that the maize deficit will be 537 380 metric tonnes (MT) this year.
Commenting on the findings, agriculture extension specialist Leon-ard Chimwaza sympathised with farmers, saying that while some sold the maize cheaply, the same farmers will be buying from ven-dors soon at exorbitant prices.
He said: “The prices will continue to skyrocket due to low supply on the market. As a staple food, consumers will find it hard to access it due to the high prices.
“For farmers, they should be climate resilient, they should keep maize and other food crops meant for consumption before they think of selling their produce. They should buy all production inputs before the prices go high during the peak periods.”
Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Mannes Nkhata urged government to consider investing in irrigation farming.
She said management of irrigation schemes should not be left in the hands of subsistence-oriented farmers, but Capital Hill should explore opportunities for supporting “working-class” farmers.
“Evidence is indicating that this category is doing some serious farming hence can contribute to changing fortunes of Malawi’s ag-riculture sector if well supported,” said Nkhata.
Last week, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said government will continue distributing relief food to vulnerable households and em-powering the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corpora-tion to buy and sell maize at subsidised prices.
