By Cathy Maulidi:
The government has given Admarc the mandate to procure maize worth K21.8 billion in the 2024-25 financial year.
This follows pressure from Parliament for Admarc to be given enough resources to procure the grain using its markets.
In the 2024-25 national budget, the government allocated K40 billion for Admarc’s restructuring.
However, on the allocated resources, Admarc was allowed to purchase only 5,000 metric tonnes of maize, a development that angered the Agriculture and Natural Resources Cluster of Parliament.
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The cluster pushed the Ministry of Agriculture to revisit the budget lines and allocate more resources for maize purchase.
Principal Secretary for Irrigation Geoffrey Mamba last week told the cluster that the ministry has reworked the Admarc budget and has resorted to giving Admarc K21.8 billion to purchase 20,000 metric tonnes of maize following the committee’s outcry.
“From the allocated K40 billion, we have resorted to spare K21.8 billion for maize purchase and this will be done solely by Admarc.
“This money will be used to buy 20,000 metric tonnes of maize from farmers. This is a big jump, and the government has been responsive to the concerns that were raised by parliamentarians,” he says.
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Of the K40 billion, K6.2 billion will be used to procure 4,000 metric tonnes of rice, K3.5 billion will be used to purchase 1,500 metric tonnes of beans and K1.7 billion will be used to purchase 1,500 metric tonnes of Soybeans.
Co-chairperson for the cluster Sameer Suleman said the cluster could have loved it if more resources were channeled towards maize purchase to plan better for next lean season.
“This is good news even though the cluster could have loved to see many metric tonnes being bought by Admarc to avoid a repetition of what has happened during this lean season.
“It is sad that we are in the lean season, but our silos are dry. We needed to plan better so as to avoid a repetition of this in the next season,” Suleman said.
He said the country needs to tread carefully on food security as the outlook for this production season remains mixed.
The Agriculture and Natural Resources Cluster met officials from the agriculture ministry, National Food Reserve Agency and Admarc after the cluster sent back the team days ago as they disagreed on the maize purchase allocation.
