Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Roza Mbilizi says the importation of maize from neighbouring Zambia and continued local purchases will help the country ease the impact of hunger. She said this at National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) Kanengo Silos in Lilongwe when she monitored the arrival of maize from Zambia. In the past three days, about 3 000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize from Zambia has been delivered as part of a planned 200 000MT import whose loading began over the weekend in Chipata, Zambia.
Mbilizi said Malawi and Zambia have already signed an agreement covering 200 000MT and that deliveries are expected to continue steadily in the coming weeks. “We have signed the contract for 200 000MT. What remains is to issue a further requisition for the remaining 97 000MT within the next two to three weeks to ensure that we secure the full required tonnage,” said the minister.
NFRA chief executive officer George Macheka said the agency was also making local purchases. He said the Zambian maize alone would be sufficient to address the food deficit as identified by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac), but welcomed the parallel local procurement. “For the first time in 10 to 15 years, NFRA will be holding the largest maize stocks.
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We already had about 38 000MT in storage and local purchases are averaging between 1 000 and 3 000MT per day,” said Macheka. He said the combined stocks would significantly strengthen national food security, adding that NFRA has put in place strict quality control and storage measures to ensure that only safe, high-quality maize reaches consumers, pledging transparency and equitable distribution as more grain arrives. Ma lawi Government secured $45 million from the World Bank to finance the maize imports from Zambia.
In addition, Parliament approved K20 billion during the Mid-Term Budget Review to cover logistical costs for nationwide distribution. In November 2025, President Peter Mutharika declared a State of Disaster in all 28 districts and four cities in the country in the wake of severe food insecurity due to prolonged dry spells. The 2025 Mvac report indicated that four million people, or about 891 000 households, are at risk of hunger during the 2025/26 consumpti on period , representing 22 percent of the country’s projected population of 20 million. The report further said the vulnerable population would require humanitarian food assistance estimated at 200 000MT of maize, valued at K387.20 billion, for a period ranging between three and six months.
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