By Chisomo Phiri
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Roza Fatch Mbilizi, has directed the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to put in place measures to reduce long queues of people selling maize at the Chilambula Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC ) depot in the capital Lilongwe.
Mbilizi issued the directive during a visit to the depot on Friday following reports that farmers and traders were spending long hours waiting to offload their maize.
She instructed NFRA management to ensure that at least 20 large trucks are offloaded per day in order to speed up operations and ease congestion at the depot.
The minister further disclosed that government plans to purchase between 50,000 and 80,000 metric tonnes of maize locally, a figure higher than the initial projection.
On his part,NFRA Chief Executive Officer (CEO ) George Macheka confirmed that operations at the Chilambula depot have returned to normal after earlier disruptions.
He explained that the delays were partly caused by some drivers who had fumigated their maize and were turned away for not complying with set procedures.
Macheka said the affected drivers later discouraged others from offloading their maize, worsening the situation.
“Drivers who initially bypassed the rules have now accepted the arrangements, and the backlog will be cleared in the coming days,” he said.
To further improve maize reception, Macheka said NFRA has introduced a night shift and extended operations to weekends to ensure a steady flow of trucks and timely offloading.
