By Yohane Symon & Mercy Matonga:
The second crop estimates which the Ministry of Agriculture released Tuesday have shown that Malawi is likely to have about 2,962,620 metric tonnes (mt) of maize, representing a 9.2 percentage increase from the final estimate of 2,712,578mt which Malawi registered in the 2023-24 growing season.
However, the quantity is less than Malawi’s annual maize requirement, which stands at 3.1 million mt.
Our calculations indicate that the quantity falls short by 137,380mt.
Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale attributed the slight increase in maize production to good maize prices of last year, which he said had seen about 2.4 percent of more land being cultivated this growing season than the last one.
However, Kawale said maize estimates were 20 percent down compared to Malawi’s average annual production of the last five years.
The minister said this was the case because of the dry spell that hit some districts, including Karonga, Mzuzu, Salima and Blantyre, just to mention a few.
He said the ministry does three rounds of yearly estimates to predict how much food and cash crops the country is likely to produce, with each round having a different purpose.
“[The] first round happens before or during planting, measuring how much land farmers plan to use and what crops they’re growing. It’s based on surveys of farming households and gives a rough idea of what to expect,” he said.
He further said the second estimate, which is usually done in February and March, happens when crops are growing and experts do verify land sizes as well as check how crops are doing, in addition to how the weather is supporting the crop standing and development.
Commenting on other crops such as cereals, Kawale said the estimates had gone up compared to the last growing season.
“Rice estimates are at 13.5 percent [144,000 tonnes increase], millet 42.9 percent increase, sorghum 28.6 percent increase and wheat 45.1 percent increase. This is due to [the] availability of improved seed varieties and good weather in some areas,” Kawale said.
To cover the available food deficit, Kawale said the ministry was pushing for irrigation farming to utilise the available water reservoirs such as dams and rivers.
“Your ministry will support farmers with seeds, fertiliser, herbicides, pesticides and irrigation equipment to ensure that we are producing a lot of maize through agriculture,” Kawale said.
And, in an interview, agriculture policy expert Tamani Nkhono Mvula said the crop estimates released were a true reflection of the levels of production for this season, considering the challenges which the sector faced.
“We, as a country, need to diversify our agriculture production systems and crops that we hugely depend on to beat the challenges like armyworms and drought that have affected our food production for a long time,” he said.
Nkhono Mvula added that the investment which the country was making through the Ministry of Agriculture was not producing value for investment because it was only targeting maize which is not producing the required results, hence the need to refocus.
Nkhono-Mvula mentioned Malawi’s overreliance on the Affordable Inputs Programme as another area which was draining money because the programme only targeted the promotion of maize production instead of casting the net wide to help the country become food secure.
“The government should also go into contract farming with institutions that have capacity to go into serious irrigation to ensure that they are supported to cover Malawi’s strategic food reserves,” he said.
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