Malawi Government has secured maize from Zambia to fill in the gap in selling points of the State produce trader, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc), following a shortage of the staple grain in the country.

Admarc has been forced to ration maize sales in the country amid rising demand which has also impacted on commercial market prices.

As a result, Admarc has been forced to ration maize sales to 10 kilogrammes per person per day.

Admarc general manager Jerry Jana, who was in Zambia last week, confirmed that Malawi has secured maize to be distributed to Admarc selling points as a transition into the next harvest.

He could not immediately comment on the quantity or the logistics.

Maize scarcity has reached worsening levels in Malawi with people now resorting to holding overnight vigils in Admarc selling points or buying the grain at exorbitant prices from vendors.

Recently, the Zambian Government through its Food Reserve Agency (FRA) also signed a contract with the Tanzania National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to supply them 20 000 metric tonnes of white maize valued at $7million.

In its position paper on the country’s hunger situation released last week, the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) called on government to immediately act on the hunger situation in the country.

A Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) in October 2012 revealed that about two million people were food insecure (about 13 percent of the population).