Advocating for the establishment of the maize grain marketing board and futures market in Malawi as multifaceted approach to achieve several sustainable development goals by 2030

Phiri Kampanje, Brian (2025): Advocating for the establishment of the maize grain marketing board and futures market in Malawi as multifaceted approach to achieve several sustainable development goals by 2030. Published in: INTL Sustainability Journal, ISSN: 3079-0263 , Vol. 3, No. 1 (1 April 2025): pp. 46-73.

Abstract

Maize is equated to life in Malawi and has substantial influence on the policy rate determined by the monetary authorities. The results of this study show that the price of maize has significantly gone up from US$0.26 in 2021 to US$0.74/kg in Malawi while annualised minimum wage has been decreasing from US$591.28 in 2021 to US$365.40 forcing more Malawians to spend more portion of their depressed earnings in buying expensive maize leading to dwindling living standards. The actual perennial maize deficit in Malawi is much higher than reported when postharvest losses, animal feed, industrial usage and informal crossborder trading are factored. Maize must be treated as a special crop and establish a formal market through establishment of a maize grain marketing board and enforce formal trading through maize futures to control quantity volatility and enhance price discovery.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Maize; Marketing; Board; SDGs; Malawi
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L11 - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure ; Size Distribution of Firms; L - Industrial Organization > L5 - Regulation and Industrial Policy > L53 - Enterprise Policy; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q11 - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis ; Prices; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q18 - Agricultural Policy ; Food Policy

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