Although it was set up to guarantee minimum prices, even in years of surpluses and paying the same prices in remote areas as in accessible ones, it hoped to create a grain reserve against famine. However, when it was set up, most Malawian families grew their own food, and the few urban and plantation workers could be supplied locally. This, and the Maize Control Board's policy of keeping prices low through concerns about over-producing maize inhibited commercial grain markets developing. Its first years of operation, 1947 and 1948 coincided with poor harvests, and in those years it bought a less than half its estimated requirements in those years. Following the famine, the production of tobacco in the affected areas decreased and Maize Control Board prices for maize were increased. The Maize Control Board had purchased just over 7,000 tons if maize in 1948: its successors purchased 30,000 tons in 1964 and 128,000 tons in 1979, showing that Malawi's maize trade was under-developed in 1949. After independence No famines occurred for over forty years after 1949: from approximately 1950 to 1980 Malawi, like much of inter-tropical Africa, enjoyed adequate and reliable rains. Food security seemed assured: the only years when consumption exceeded production were in 1963, 1970, 1975, 1976 and 1980 and none were as serious as 1949 or later shortages. In 1961, in the approach to independence, the colonial-era marketing boards were replaced by the Farmers Marketing Board with wide powers to buy, sell and process farm products, promote price stability and subsidise seed and fertilizer prices. Before 1969, it made no profits from its purchasing monopoly, but after this the Farmers Marketing Board and its successor, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), created in 1971, profited significantly. Smallholders had to support the high operating costs of ADMARC, much of whose income came from underpaying them. ADMARC only re-invested 5% of funds in smallholder farms, but subsidised tobacco estates, so that by the mid-1980s, it diverted two-thirds of its income to estates. Until 1979, it had sound finances: when tobacco prices collapsed, its lack of liquidity threatened its main creditors, Malawi's two commercial banks. From 1980, Malawi's rainfall tended to decrease and fall for shorter periods. As its rural population grew, food production only exceeded consumption in 1993 and annual maize consumption fell from 240 kilos in the 1960s to 160 kilos in the 1990s: this deficiency was only