Don’t sell maize to vendors – APM warns Malawians
President Arthur Peter Mutharika has asked Malawians not to sell their harvest to vendors at a time when the country is experiencing another spell of food shortage, a situation that has forced government to declare a state of national disaster.
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page on Wednesday, President Mutharika discouraged those depleting their household food stocks from continuing with such tendency.
“It has come to my notice that some families across the country are already selling the grain they have harvested to vendors let alone at very low prices. As such this sad trend of letting go our food stocks this early does not augur well with our desire to ensure that every household has enough food up until the next harvesting season,” wrote the President.
Media reports have indicated that vendors are rushing to villages to buy maize capitalizing on low real income of desperate people.
Following two farming seasons of drought, the President early this year declared Malawi a state of national disaster and called upon the international community to intervene.
His call has already yielded results with many stakeholders giving Malawi money to buy extra maize
from neighbouring countries.
While remaining optimistic with the help Malawi has so far received, the President emphasized that there is no need to be careless with the food already in homes.
“We must jealously guard our food stocks at household level. My government will surely have enough food for you but that does not give us a leeway to sell the little we have,” he said.
Malawi and other countries in the Sub Sahara region have for the past three years been hit by El Nino spell which has affected the pattern of rainfall in the region. This pattern has brought little or destructive rains across the board.
Inu mukatiletse kugulitsa chimanga ndi chanu? Kapena munatithandiza kulima? Munatigulirako ka fetelrza kapena?
Chimanga ndi chathu ndipo ndikhoza kupanga nacho zimene eni akefe tikufuna. Inu amakuletsa ndani kugulitsa katundu? Siuja munagultsa MSB? Ifeso pano tisiyeni.
God gave us lake malawi full of fresh waters and taste fish so we can contain this el nino. But we malawians what do we do with this blessing? Kamuzu brought this polytechnic so pipo can learn creativity of things. So can’t we make something out of these to boost farming/food shortages and electricity please? We have engineers who can do something, cant we give them a project that can deal with these things? Abale inu? Where is that vision 2020 as this is 2016?
Ine simungaletse kugulitsa chimanga changa ngati kuti mwandipatsa ndalama ya ndiwo ndi mchere ndi soap, zopusa eti? Life is not ufa okha we need clothes and other things. Dull leaders
Your Excellency Sir. The best way is to issue a temporary barn on maize vending and allow only ADMARC and NFRA to buy and keep the maize in readness for the looming hunger.
You have the powers to issue the ban Sir. Remember that the maize is Government maize produced through the Subsidy Programme which your Government is implementing.