MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE SETS CROP FARM GATE PRICES: MALAWI

 

M

alawi Government through the Ministry of Agriculture has released 2023/2024 minimum farm gate price for staple grain and other selected crops on 5 April 2024 through a press statement signed by the Ministry’s Principal secretary.

Principal secretary, Dickxie Kampani acknowledged in his statement that the new prices are of immediate effect and that people will be purchasing maize at K600 per kilograms from last year’s price of K500 per kilograms, pure beans at K1200 per kilograms from last year’s K700 per kilograms, mixed beans at K900 per kilograms from last year’s K600per kilograms, unpolished rice at K650 per kilograms from previous year’s K500 per kilograms and other national relayed crops with also some great increment of prices per each quantity.

According to the Ministry these new prices have been acknowledged and accepted after a recommendation of a team  of technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade and Industries, Malawi Investment and Trade centre, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource- Luanar, MWAPATA, NASFAM, ADMARC, GTPA, FUM, Indigenous Traders Association, Malawi Police Service, Competition and Fari-Trade Commission, AICC, Paramount, Agrivalue LTD and CISANET, gathered on 26 March, to share their findings.

Minister of Agriculture, Samuel Kawale has said on his official personal meta account that determining these new prices it was a collaborative effort, with all stakeholders providing valuable input. Production cost, international marketplace prices and availability of off-taker were key factors for the consideration of the initiative.

“The stakeholders recognized that the general price trends for Malawi Agricultural prices are higher than in other countries, primarily due to low production and productivity by smallholder farmers. In response, the Ministry of Agriculture is unwavering in its commitment to monitoring commercial farmers who produce on a large scale and are comparatively effective,” said Kawale. He finished by encouraging farmers that if they are to benefit from their work, they must trade their farm produce with the approved traders who have agreed to buy farmers’ commodities at these new set of prices, and these traders are expected to be listed to be made known to the public.

On their Meta platform, Ministry of Agriculture has said that the agreement has been achieved as the stakeholders have agreed on the need for regulations to enforce the minimum farm gate prices and that this measure was successfully implemented during the increased cases of Covid-19, as the Ministry strived in maintaining these prices.

Dating 2 years back, Agricultural Ministry under Lobin Lowe holding the position of Minister in 2022 people were buying maize grain at K220 per kilograms, soya at K480 per kilograms, shelled groundnuts at K740 per kilograms, unshelled groundnuts at K450 per kilograms, polished rice at K700 per kilograms, unpolished rice at K300 per kilogram; and 2023 the Ministry under Samuel Kawale holding as the Minister came with new crop price set of maize grain at K500 per kilogram, soya at K800 per kilogram, unpolished rice at K500 per kilogram, polished rice at K1000 per kilogram; and 2024 shows another great increment of crop prices representing 30%, 55% and 23% incremental crop prices respectively.

The Ministry has announced that it will work hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Finance to help in funding the Malawi Police Services to enforce the MFGPs. It also urged all buyers of particular crops to be buying the goods not less than the set prices otherwise anyone who tries to buy at a lower price, a law will be enforced upon the unscrupulous act.

Ministry has requested all agro-dealers, agro-processors, stakeholder and others who deals with buying and selling of these commodities to purchase the stated commodities at prices not less than the prescribed prices of the commodities. Kampani has urged all who deals with buying of these commodities that they can obtain licenses to purchase agricultural produce from offices of Programme Managers in Mzuzu, Machinga, Kalonga, Lilongwe, Salima, Blantyre, Kasungu and Shire Valley Agricultural Development Divisions (ADD) and also from Director of Crop Development at Ministry of Agriculture headquarters.  

With the new development, Mchinji District Council Chairperson, Dorothy Musa has acclaimed to the development of minimum farm gate prices for crops. She thanked the government for setting new prices for strategic crops for 2023/2024 farming season, she proceeded to say that these new prices will help to deter dishonest vendors from buying crops from farmers at a lower price.

She has warned the vendors from such unpleasant act of using fake scales when purchasing farmer’s produce that the council is set to look out their malpractice. “We applaud government for the minimum farm gate price and for its timely release because unscrupulous vendors have already started swindling local farmers. It is sad that vendors buy farm produce at lower prices using fake weighing scales,” said Musa.

Musa continued in her saying that their intentions is to ensure that local farmers, especially small-scale farmers must benefit from this year’s farm gate price, as they sale their produce.

Ministry of Agriculture has promised that in the coming year they will start to include other commodities such as pearl millet, milk, dairy products and livestock in farm gate price measurements.