The Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has spent K8.9 billion to buy 45,000 metric tonnes of maize, as Admarc spokesperson, Agness Chikoko outlined that the parastatal aims to buy over 200,000 metric tonnes of the commodity.

The development is similar as last year, the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) set aside K8 billion for buying maize. According to Chikoko, the target this year will achieve that because there is a lot of maize in the system. “There is a provision for funds for Admarc in the recently approved provisional budget which we believe will help us achieve the targeted volumes,” Chikoko said.

According to this year’s growing season’s Round of Agricultural production survey, maize production is up by 8.8%, in comparison to last growing season. Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development show that 3 691 866 metric tonnes of maize will be produced in the 2019/2020 growing season an improvement from 3 391 924 metric tonnes in the 2018/2019 growing season.