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Leave Admarc intact—NGOs
By
Joseph Langa - 25-09-2002 |
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Civil society organisations yesterday warned government against privatising Admarc, arguing that the move would increase poverty and hunger especially in the country’s rural areas where private traders would not want to operate.
But the Economists Association of Malawi (Ecama) spoke in favour of full privatisation of the entity to make it financially vibrant, saying Admarc has failed to tick despite several government measures to improve its operations.
The civil society organisations raised the issues at a stakeholders meeting in Lilongwe yesterday organised by the Joint Oxfam Programme in Malawi to highlight social implications that could arise from privatising Admarc as revealed by a countrywide study.
Presenting the findings of the survey, Oxfam consultant Khwima Nthara said 82.2 percent of the people in the rural areas are against the plans to privatise Admarc fearing they would be denied access to reasonably cheap maize and farm inputs.
The survey showed that many farmers from areas where Admarc closed its markets observed that privatising the crop and farm inputs marketer would lead to higher prices of fertilizer and food. They noted that private traders will keep away from the rural areas due to poor transport infrastructure.
According to the report only 6.7 percent of the respondents thought privatising the entity would lead to the availability of farm inputs and food in deficit remote areas.
Catholic Development Commission of Malawi (Cadecom) nutrition and food security coordinator Therese Gondwe said privatising Admarc will be to the disadvantage of the rural community since traders will not be willing to sell their maize and farm inputs in the rural areas because of low turn over, a development that will worsen the food crisis.
“It is not good to privatise Admarc because it will be to the disadvantage of the poor farmers. The farmers will not be able to get food at the time they need it most as was the case last year,” she said.
Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation Executive director Ollen Mwalubunju said it would be very suicidal to leave Admarc to private players since the entity deals with a critical matter, food security that is the key to economic development.
Mzuzu Diocese Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) commissioner Lucy Nyirenda and MCTU secretary general Francis Antonio agreed with the others, arguing that privatising Admarc would worsen food shortages and poverty in the country, with people in rural areas suffering heavily.
“If you look at last year’s hunger you will discover that it was worsened because rural people had no where to buy maize. Privatising such an entity will mean worsening the country’s own food insecurity and poverty,” said Antonio.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Land and Natural Resources is developing a report to present to Parliament on the opinions
of the public regarding the privatisation of Admarc.
The report will be based on the findings of the committee through written submissions collected from the public and the outcome of the public hearing it organised at Lilongwe Hotel last week.
The committee so far says all the 36 written submissions it has collected from the public are against the privatisation of Admarc, saying the move will create a vacuum in social marketing.
But Ecama operations director George Thindwa said his organisation fully supports the privatisation of Admarc because doing so would improve the financial position of the organisation, which has failed to tick despite several government interventions.
“I support the view that Admarc should be wholly privatised. I am aware that there will be a vacuum, which will be created in the social market,
but government should develop measures to target those social issues,” said Thindwa.
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