MALAWI: Civil society concerned over govt's maize budget

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

LILONGWE, 6 May 2005 (IRIN) - Malawian civil society has expressed concern that a proposed increase in the national maize budget may be inadequate to meet purchasing requirements, as production this year could fall short by 300,000 mt to 500,000 mt.

A second round of crop estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security indicated a possible drop of around 25 percent, from about 1.7 million mt last season to about 1.3 million mt this season. Malawi's annual maize requirement is just under 2 million mt.

"The government has informally told us that they intend to buy an additional 60,000 mt of maize, while we are negotiating for at least another 200,000 mt," said Collins Magalasi, national coordinator of the Malawi Economic Justice Network, an umbrella body of NGOs.

Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe announced last week that government would increase the allocation for maize in next month's 2005/06 budget, but did not indicate the amount being set aside.

"Government is increasing the maize budget to accommodate the purchase of adequate quantities of maize to meet part of the food gap, as reported in our food balance sheet for the 2005/06 season," principal secretary for agriculture, Andrew Daudi, told IRIN.

However, Magalasi commented, "The government has told us that the remainder of the gap will be covered by other foods, such as potatoes, but we have told them in our submission that if it did not procure an additional 200,000 mt we could have people starving."

The price of maize had already begun to spiral in Malawi, he said. "The price of maize meal has shot from about US 17 cents to about 33 cents per kg within a week." The price of corn-on-the-cob had also increased by about 15 percent.

The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) cautioned in a recent report that maize prices might soon go up unless appropriate interventions were undertaken, or sufficient maize was imported in informal cross-border trade.

"However, if traders take advantage of the situation and charge exorbitant prices for their maize, poor households will suffer as a result. The warning about impending hunger is loud and clear - the different food security stakeholders should start making plans to address the situation if a food crisis is to be avoided," said FEWS NET.

Agriculture experts have blamed government for poor fertiliser distribution by the Targeted Input Programme, which was contributing to food insecurity in the country.

Daudi countered this by saying, "Several issues should be looked at when you talk about production of maize as a food crop - you could have fertilisers, but without rain ... it is impossible to achieve food security."

[ENDS]