The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Food Security has stressed on the need to amend the country’s laws to allow the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to start procuring maize.

By law, the government Agency is mandated to buy farm produce for stock purposes only by relying state-grain marketer – Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc).

But speaking to YFM Online, Chairperson for the Committee Sameer Suleman said much as NFRA is only allowed to reserve maize, there is need to amend the country’s laws that the Agency also be procuring maize.

“What we told him is to try and bring up to us as a committee a proposal that may be within their mandate. They should also be allowed to buy.

“Remind you they will only be allowed to buy for stocks, not for resale or for commercial, so we as a committee, we have no problems with that,” Suleman said.

Suleman has since reiterated that such maize should be procured for storage purposes only.

He said: “If they are able to buy and keep and do these accountability and transparency in the process, we support that idea.”

According to the Committee, Admarc is currently in shambles and it is trying to fix the once vibrant grain trader.

In addition, the Committee observed that most of the stocks that Admarc has are under collateral courtesy of the commercial banks.