Malawi farmers are being crushed between record input costs and the region’s lowest maize prices, a paradox that dominated the country’s commemoration of World Food Day on Friday, 16 October, as stakeholders warned of a deepening food security crisis in a nation already battling erratic rains and chronic hunger.
This year’s theme, “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow.”, championed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), landed hard in a country where growers spend more to earn less.
The day found Malawi at a difficult junction: an agrarian economy historically haunted by hunger, dependent on a staple now selling at giveaway prices even as growers pay record sums to produce it.
For policymakers, the theme landed close to home. Gibson Jere, Deputy Director for Food and Nutrition in the Ministry of Agriculture, said progress has been made, but many households still struggle to access sufficient, affordable and nutritious food.
“Food security is not just about producing more food, but also about ensuring that everyone can access safe, diverse and nutritious diets throughout the year,” Jere told Malawi24.
He urged diversification away from maize into sorghum, millet, cassava, legumes, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables, alongside livestock and fish farming, expanded irrigation and climate-smart agriculture.
But when pressed on the maize stock situation at NFRA and ADMARC depots, and whether the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) is reaching smallholders on time, Jere deferred: “These questions have specific offices.”
Attempts to get clearer responses from the Ministry spokesperson were unsuccessful.
According to the Ministry’s official Facebook page, the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Honourable Roza Fatch Mbilizi, was attending the World Food Day Global Ceremony in Rome, Italy, where global leaders and development partners gathered to discuss food security and agricultural transformation.
Former Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda wears five hats that rarely sit easily together: Leader of Opposition in Parliament for the Malawi Congress Party, former Minister of Trade, incumbent legislator for Kasungu South Constituency, and founder of Namuleri Farms, a 300-hectare Kasungu enterprise employing 100 to 200 people across maize, rice, cassava, bananas, sugarcane, livestock and fisheries.
By his own account, he is a farmer feeling the same input squeeze as the smallholders he represents, despite running a large-scale commercial operation. Fertilizer, he says, is the biggest burden.
According to AGRA, NPK sells at K185,000 to K210,000 per 50kg bag and Urea at K180,000 to K190,000, both up 29.4 percent year-on-year. Many smallholders now buy by the bucket, not the bag.
On fuel, Banda cited petrol at K5,619 per litre and diesel at K5,863 per litre as evidence of the squeeze on farmers, figures that tell only part of the story.
According to a Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) press statement issued on 1 August 2026, the price of diesel was reduced by 7.03 percent, from K6,306 to K5,863 per litre, with immediate effect, while the price of petrol was maintained at K5,619 per litre.
Those higher prices prevailed during Banda’s own tenure at Treasury, which began with his appointment in October 2023 under then-President Lazarus Chakwera; the 41 percent January 2026 jump that lifted prices to those peaks also occurred on his watch.
Diesel, which powers tractors, irrigation pumps and market transport, remains elevated even after the recent cuts.
Certified seed is beyond most farmers’ reach, according to the Farmers Union of Malawi, while maize sells at around K963 per kilogramme. In short, growers are spending more to earn less.
Banda is demanding action on two fronts. From government: a working subsidy or e-voucher system that delivers fertilizer before planting (last season only 30,000 of 110,000 metric tonnes arrived on time); stable fuel and forex; clear El Niño extension advice; and minimum farm-gate prices covering production costs. From buyers: contracts sealed before planting, prompt payment, aggregation centres and warehouses, and inputs on credit repaid after harvest.
The 30,000 of 110,000 metric tonnes figure has been fact-checked against IFPRI data published on 27 October 2023, the same month Banda was appointed Finance Minister, placing the documented shortfall within his own time in office.
Yet even without policy relief, farmers are not waiting. Banda said many are already adapting through conservation agriculture: minimum tillage, mulching, crop rotation, organic manure and compost; agroforestry using Gliricidia and Faidherbia; water harvesting through box ridges, swales and check dams; crop diversification into cassava, sweet potato, sorghum and pigeon peas; and intercropping maize with legumes.
For the smallholder, the cost squeeze is more than an economic story. It is a personal wound.
In Mchinji, soybean and maize farmer Fred Sambani, who has tilled the soil for nearly a decade, marked the day with what he called a broken heart.
“It breaks a farmer’s heart to feed a nation and still struggle to make a living from the very food they produce,” he said.
“We cannot achieve lasting food security by sacrificing the livelihoods of those who produce our food. A hungry farmer cannot sustainably feed a nation.”
And the pain is felt not only at the farm gate but also at the market stall.
Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) director John Kapito flagged weak oversight in informal markets, where packaging is unlabelled and measuring instruments fall short of Malawi Bureau of Standards, leaving underweight sales rife, especially in rural areas.
Hoarding laws exist, he said, but the practice resurfaces whenever supply tightens, as seen recently with sugar.
He also warned that equating food with maize lies at the root of widespread undernourishment, particularly among children and women, and urged citizens to actively know and demand their rights rather than wait for the state.
For ordinary citizens, however, the day passed largely unnoticed. Maxwell Gwetsani, a vegetable gardener from Kanthulu Village in Lilongwe’s Area 38, in Malawi’s central region, had never heard of World Food Day, though he noted maize is more affordable this year, with a 50kg bag selling at K45,000 to K50,000 (about $28.84).
But beneath that relief lies an alarming trend: poverty is forcing rural families to sell farmland to wealthier urban buyers, leaving them dependent on outsourced food rather than their own harvests.
In Blantyre’s Soche Manje township, in the country’s commercial city, Wesley Namalueso said food prices have been erratic.
He traces the strain to Cyclone Freddy, which flooded the area and destroyed harvests.
“Our family is surviving on three meals a day, but we eat what is available, not what we choose. Our pockets are dry. Finding food in the morning is not easy,” he said.
For now, the questions facing the agency championing the day remain unanswered. When approached on Friday, an FAO Malawi official said a same-day response would not be possible.
“I am aware there is a Press Release being prepared by the government, so give us time,” said George Mvula.
By publication time, Malawi24’s questionnaire, covering crisis-level food insecurity, emergency interventions, irrigation scaling, climate-smart agriculture and Malawi’s trajectory toward Zero Hunger by 2030, remained unanswered.