A Malawi AgriBiz Podcast quotes a mega farmer from Kasungu Mrs Changaya as saying that mega farmers in the country are keeping a lot of maize which government may not be able to buy. Changaya was interviewed just after a meeting she attended at the Ministry of Agriculture upon invitation by the Controller of Agricultural Extension and Technical Services Dr Alfred Mwenifumbo. The meeting was supposed to discuss pricing and the way forward for mega farming. Unfortunately, it did not discuss the pricing issue because Mwenifumbo gave an apology and did not attend the meeting.
Changaya outlined challenges the mega farmers are facing. Some of them delivered their maize to the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) and Admarc in July and August this year. But, according to her, the two institutions are yet to pay the farmers because they have no money.
The other challenge is that the mega farmers signed contracts with Mega Farms Unit last year. But since then, transport costs have risen. The mega farmers want to meet with Ministry officials to discuss and agree on better prices taking into account the rising transport costs.
The maize the mega farmers are keeping and the rise in transport costs come against the background that four million people are at risk of hunger in the 2025/26 consumption period, representing 22 percent of the country’s projected population of 18.5 million, according to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) data.
The simple answer to the food shortage for the four million people is that government should buy the maize from the mega farmers and take it to those who have nothing. It is as simple as that.
Instead Government has announced plans to import 200 000 metric tonnes of maize. Admarc disclosed this a month before the General Election. Facing elections, the former government wanted to assure Malawians that they would not starve under the Chakwera administration.
Luckily, the new government has adopted the plan, but for a different reason. One of the Peter Mutharika’s administration’s campaign promises was that it would reduce prices of maize if voted into power. So, it is not a question of if but when the maize will be imported. And government needs K387.20 billion for this.
The question is: why does government want to import maize when there is more than enough locally? Why not buy locally and save forex?
It is a foregone conclusion that NFRA and Admarc are failing to pay mega farmers for the maize delivered to them in July and August because they don’t have money. There is no sense in government breaking the bank to import maize from Zambia when it is failing to pay for the stock already delivered to it? Maize is maize, whether grown in Zambia or Malawi.
For me, it is all just politics. Government is aware there is enough maize locally to feed the four million Malawians in need of food aid from this month to March next year. But it wants to flood the market with foreign maize to force local mega farmers to lower prices of their produce. In doing so, the Mutharika administration will be seen as fulfilling its promise on maize. But at whose cost?
The mega farmers need not just to break-even from their maize production business but also make profits in order to produce again in the 2025/26 growing season. The new administration is killing mega farmers and perpetuating the cycle of food insecurity in the country. If government does not buy their maize at a reasonable price, they want be here again next year.
Maize is also a major contributor to Malawi’s inflation because it makes up about 53.7 percent of the consumer price index (CPI), the basket of goods used to calculate inflation. Consequently, fluctuations in maize prices have a significant and direct impact on the overall inflation rate. An increase in the price of maize has a direct bearing on the cost of food for consumers.
For this reason, maize politics in Malawi is a deeply embedded issue due to its centrality to food security, livelihoods, and culture, which politicians leverage to win votes. This leads to significant government intervention in the maize market, including subsidies, price controls, and national food reserves, aimed at maintaining affordable prices for consumers while supporting farmers.
The Mutharika administration should not frustrate mega farmers simply because the Mega Farm Project was implemented by the former government. Besides saving forex Government should buy all the maize from mega farmers so that they can produce maize again in the next growing season.
