Pigeon pea farmers have complained that their industry is facing various challenges, which the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet), has called on the government to act upon.

Cisanet, a non-governmental organization that advocates for the best agricultural practices, has decried that middlemen and traders had pigeon peas, leaving farmers in a disadvantaged state. A position paper by Cisanet has said that the Pigeon pea market is worsened by policy and structural weaknesses including poor enforcement of minimum farm gate prices, poor storage facilities and over dependence on the export market.

“We recommend [that] the government must continuously engage the government of India to secure a quota for exporting pigeon peas and stakeholders, both public and private, should intensify deliberate efforts for increasing local consumption of Pigeon peas, by introducing pigeon pea consumption in schools, prisons and hospitals and using it in disaster response programs,” the paper reads.

Figures on factfish.com show that Malawi produced to 470,653 tons in 2017, against 13, 144, 448 tons of produced world wide. That was the highest production recorded, as prior years show slow increase in production. In 2012, Alfa Corporation, one of Indian major importers of pigeon peas, was looking for suppliers of the crop from Malawi. Experts described this as an opportunity for Malawi currently reeling under serious foreign exchange shortages to patch up its holes.