This means a 50 Kilograms bag of maize will be selling at K10 000.

Minister of Agriculture Francis Kasaila said at a media briefing in Lilongwe ADMARC will therefore open its markets in the Southern Region and Ntcheu District Thursday this week while in the Central and Northern Regions, markets shall open on 20th and 27th April respectively to buy maize from local farmers at the cost.

Kasaila said government has so far released 3 Billion Kwacha of the budgeted 9 Billion Kwacha to ADMARC for the maize procurement exercise.

He defended a decision to open the markets in phases beginning with the Southern region by saying: “people in the South have harvested their crops earlier than Central and Northern regions.”

According to the farm gate prices, rice polished is at K600 per kilogram, Soya beans are at K300 per kilogram while pure beans are at K450 per kilogram.

Pigeon peas are at a minimum of K240 per kilogram, Cotton grade A K389 per kilogram while grade b is at a minimum price of K310 per kilogram.

Minister Kasaila said the prices will be gazetted to formulate a law, which shall be enforced to ensure all traders buy agricultural commodities, at recommended prices.

“Everyone who wants to buy these crops from farmers must have a license obtained from the office of Programme Managers (in all Agricultural Development Divisions) at a fee of K10 000 per commodity ,” said the minister.

Government hopes to buy up to 217 thousand metric tons of maize by the end of this year.

“There will be some resources from development partners which will assist in the maize procurement exercise. We will have 7.1 Million United States Dollars from a project to buy the commodity,” said Kasaila.

ADMARC is also expected to buy beans and pigeon peas and soya beans from local farmers using its own funds.

“My expectation is that markets for selected commodities such as beans in Dedza – Chimbiya will be open as early as 14th April.”

The Minister said in an event that there are no good markets for legumes for instance due to coronavirus which has affected the economy globally, government shall rely on value addition to fetch better costs.

Kasaila also disclosed that ADMARC markets will follow some measures in preventing further spread of coronavirus during the period.

The measures are that a maximum of 20 farmers will be allowed to enter a gate of the market at a particular time, markets will be disinfected using Chlorine, everyone accessing markets will be required to wash hands and all workers will be provided with protective wear.