Malawi Govt. announces minimum prices for agricultural commodities

By Bester Kayaye

In a bid to regulate prices of agricultural commodities on the local market, Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has announced minimum farm-gate prices of crop produce for the 2019/2020 agricultural season.

The minimum price for maize is K200 per kg, polished and unpolished rice at K600 and K280 per kg respectively, Soya beans has been pegged at K300 per kg while pigeon peas is at K240 per kg.

Announcing the prices in Lilongwe, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Francis Kasaira said: “The Ministry is mandated to regulate prices of agricultural commodities in the country. This is achieved through the release of minimum farm-gate prices at the start of each selling season to ensure that farmers are not exploited by the unscrupulous traders.”

“At the same time, this measure ensures affordable prices to consumers. Regulation of agricultural commodity prices ultimately is key in improving incomes of farmers and achieving food and nutrition security in the country.”

The Minister said the minimum farm-gate prices are determined through a consultative process involving key stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

Among other things, the Ministry undertakes a cost of production survey in all districts across the country which involves collecting data on production costs from sampled smallholder farmers on selected crop enterprises, then the data is used to compute gross margins and break-even prices.

“To determine minimum farm gate prices, the Task Force team comprising key stakeholders such as members of the public, private, civil society and farmer organizations further scrutinize the breakeven prices for the selected crops. A markup profit usually set between 10-30% on the break-even price is considered to arrive at the minimum farm gate price,” he said.

Meanwhile, government has bankrolled the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) to commence purchasing maize from Thursday April 9 in the southern region, April 20^th in the Central Region and April 27 in the Northern Region.