On Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale toured some Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to appreciate the maize selling process. Among other things, it was reported that vendors were making the bulk of those purchasing the maize in markets. This comes as most depots are also reportedly out of stock while the price of the commodity remains elevated. Journalist SERAH CHILORA caught up with Kawale on the way forward.
Firstly, what was the rationale behind your visits to Admarc depots?
We wanted to be on the ground and physically see and hear from the families on how the ministry is assisting them. We are happy we have stopped around seven places in about four districts and we have heard how we can continue serving them and supply the staple grain, maize, as well as wrap up fertiliser distribution process in the region.
What is your impression of the process this far?
We got good feedback that we managed to distribute fertiliser in good time and both types of fertiliser have been getting them and that we managed to troubleshoot the problems that were rising along the way. A few remaining issues on the part of fertiliser are more manageable because they are more administrative issues on the selling points. It is good that we have heard from them.
Speaking to the people, there appears to be many problems on the ground including low supply of the commodity and in other cases where vendors are cashing in on porous systems. What is your take of the challenges?
We have seen the opening of maize selling points, how it [maize] is being distributed and the weaknesses that are there to continuously replenish once it has run out. Those are some of the important things we have managed to hear as we went around. We will go back with a very good picture of how we can assist them better, starting from tomorrow, onwards. And we will go back and work on how we can improve for the next season
But the question remains how you intend address the challenges?
We appreciate people raising issues at selling points such as underweight of maize. They[buyers] need to report quickly. As a ministry, we have a mechanism handling these issues. If we find that the maize is underweight, they should tell us immediately and not wait for days because we need to verify. We used tested and approved scales by the Malawi Bureau of Standards. We are not saying mistakes cannot happen, but we are saying if they report on the same day it is easy for us to replace the scales.
On vendors conniving with our clerks, we are able to solve it quickly when they tell us in good time. As you know, we have new employees. We do not think some will be silly enough to convince vendors. We will terminate their contracts immediately. But what we know is that conniving with vendors does not necessarily happen when the clerk is selling. It usually happens outside. There is what we call the willing buyer and willing seller; so, people are conniving. We understand vendors are giving the elderly and the disabled people money to come multiple times to purchase maize. They are using dubious means that we have no control over money.
