LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s civil rights group, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has urged President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance government to act with urgency on maize shortages which will affect many Malawians.
The grouping wants Chakwera Tonse Alliance administration to put measures that will cushion citizens from alarming hunger.
This comes as maize prices are pegged at MK30,000 per 50-kilogram just two months of crop harvest.
Addressing the news conference, CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said the Tonse government through Parliament table a bill on maize management within seven days.
“CDEDI wishes to alert Malawians that the current maize situation in the country is a fatal disaster in waiting. Unfortunately, like what often happens when disaster strikes, this maize crisis will mostly affect vulnerable and marginalized Malawians in both urban and rural areas, and needless loss of lives cannot be ruled out.
“Malawians may wish to know that despite Parliament approving MK12 billion for buying maize, coupled with the changing of the government financial year to allow for timely procurement of the staple food, the country has maize that will only last two months if it were to be supplied nationwide,” says Namiwa in a statement.
Namiwa adds, “Those that follow parliamentary deliberations must have heard how dire the maize situation is across the country. In their wisdom, legislators have adopted a motion by the Leader of Opposition, Hon. Kondwani Nankhumwa for government to make maize available in all the districts that were hit by Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
“We at CDEDI have serious reservations with the above approach in fighting the biting hunger! It is selective and unsustainable. Our reservations have been
augmented by the following;
- With 91 percent of employable Malawians being jobless, coupled with the effects of cyclone Freddy, and drought in the case of Karonga, given that the Tonse Alliance administration set the minimum price of maize at MK500 a kilogram, translating to MK25,000 per 50-kilogram bag, how do we expect those that lost almost everything to buy maize at that price?
- At the prevailing MK50,000 minimum wage, the majority of Malawians can also not afford to buy the maize
“It is time those holding positions on the trust of the people, especially the Executive and the Legislative arms of government acted in the interest of their masters, notably the ultra-poor. Countries the world over are obliged to provide for their citizens who cannot provide for themselves”.
Namiwa observes, “It is strange to note that Parliament resolved that all the maize released from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) is for sale. That means no one thought about the vulnerable, especially those who lost everything to the cyclone, the jobless, and those that did not harvest enough due to the chaotic Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) compounded by the skyrocketing fertilizer prices. Given the revelation that maize currently available in the country will only take the country up to October, the decision to release NFRA maize for sale is very insensitive.
“This is so bearing in mind that while the staple food is selling at about MK30,000 per 50kg bag in the Central Region, in some parts of the Southern Region, the same bag is fetching between MK40,000 and MK60,000”.
“The reasoning behind releasing the maize for sale is discriminatory and inconsiderate to the vulnerable and marginalized food-insecure households.
“From the above, it is clear that government has no choice but to release the maize to all the parts of the country and at the same time reduce the minimum
price by half”, says Namiwa.
Similarly, a social protection mechanism should be put in place to ensure that the ultra-poor receives free food. Needless to remind members on both sides of the House and government the majority of the population threatened with starvation are the ones that turned up en masse to vote for them in 2019.
Instead of pressing the panic button or softening regulations on maize imports, CDEDI is imploring Parliament to immediately suspend relevant Standing Orders and come up with an emergency maize bill.
Through this bill, government should engage Illovo and Salima sugar companies, and other largescale commercial farmers to grow maize through irrigation.
There should also be an initiative to tap the underground water to enable prison facilities to engage in irrigation farming.
Likewise, those in the lakeshore districts should be provided with solar pumps or canals to grow maize. Given that most Malawians are yet to adopt alternatives to maize, it is imperative to increase the production of the staple food.
It is a sign of intellectual bankruptcy to begin rationing maize today, let alone to be thinking of imports when there is an acute shortage of forex in the country, more so a country blessed with fertile soils, hardworking people, and freshwater bodies.
In view of the above, CDEDI hereby makes the following demands;
- The Leader of the Opposition should facilitate the tabling of the Maize Bill.
- Government should immediately release the NFRA maize to all Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation selling points.
Finally, CDEDI wishes to give Parliament seven (7) days to deliberate and pass the maize Bill, or failure to do so will prompt us to camp at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe from Monday, August 7, 2023, until the Bill is passed maize is made available, and its price is reduced.
Malawi Parliament is yet to respond to CDEDI’s appeal as legislators are on sessions since last week.
