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GM maize milling starts next week
By
Aubrey Mchulu - 28-11-2002 |
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Milling of the genetically modified (GM) maize is scheduled to start next week but will be restricted to millers with the capacity as a control measure to check against leakages to people who may plant it, Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Aleke Banda said on Thursday.
Banda said in an interview that there has been a delay to start milling the maize because government was looking for funds and inspecting safety and hygiene standards of the prospective millers. Initially, the ministry said milling would start in November.
President Bakili Muluzi said in September that government will require US$20 million (about K1.56 billion) to mill the GM maize from the United States as part of humanitarian food aid.
Dismissing the September 16, 2002 report by the Malawi National Vulnerability Assessment Committee which said Malawi does not have the capacity to mill the 50,000 metric tonnes of GM maize, Banda said there is capacity.
“We have more capacity [to mill] than we have the GM maize,” he said.
But Muluzi told James Morris, United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan’s special envoy for humanitarian crisis in southern Africa in September, that information indicates that the country’s milling companies have the capacity to mill 20,000 metric tonnes per month.
World Food Programme (WFP) country director Gerard van Dijk, whose organisation was one of the financiers of the expert study on Malawi’s capacity, said in a separate interview the programme is still waiting for feedback from the Malawi Government.
“We are waiting for guidance from [the Malawi] government on what should be done to have the maize milled in view of the report,” said van Dijk.
Banda said planting rains have not yet started in most parts of the country hence fears of some people planting the GM maize were unfounded.
However, he was noncommittal on reports that part of the 50,000 metric tonnes scheduled for milling is being distributed to some beneficiaries unmilled.
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