The Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the Government parastatal mandated to manage the national strategic stock and engage in market facilitation, increased the maize purchasing price by 13 percent, from MWK 75 (USD 0.10) set in May to MWK 85 (USD 0.12) per bag of 50 kilograms for the 2016/17 marketing year (May/April). The adjustment was made to better reflect higher maize production costs which farmers have faced following the depreciation of the local currency in 2015, which contributed to raising input prices. In the current marketing year, the FRA has targeted the procurement of 1 million tonnes of maize, the country’s main staple food and grown by approximately 80 percent of smallholder farmers.