Police in Mangochi have impounded three motor vehicles for contravening farm-gate regulations.
Mangochi Police Station Spokesperson Amina Tepani Daudi told Malawi Muslim Website that the first motor vehicle, Toyota Dyna lorry Registration Number BW549, was intercepted by police officers on duty at Engen Filling Station at Mangochi Boma in the wee hours of July 17, 2021.
“The motor vehicle which was heading Blantyre, was loaded with 140 bags of pigeon peas belonging to Byson Jimu, 28, a smallholder farmer in Mulanje who violated conditions of his licence which only allows him to buy farm produce from Thyolo, Mulanje and Phalombe Districts,”
“On the same day, in the afternoon, police officers from Chiponde Border Post, intercepted two trucks registration numbers NS8127 carrying 440 bags of maize and KA9057 carrying 300 bags of maize at Nyanya area near Chiponde border,” Daudi says.
Daudi adds, ” The two trucks were using uncharted routes to Mozambique to sell the maize. The two trucks were impounded for violating farm-gate regulations of not exporting farm produce outside the country without a permit.”
The three traders will appear before court to answer their charges after completion of paperwork.
Mangochi Police Station is assuring the public in general and farmers in particular of continued enforcement operations to protect farm produce from being smuggled outside the country.