The World Bank will loan famine-hit Malawi
$50-million for an emergency recovery project to improve harvests and prevent more food shortages next year, it said in a statement.
Forty million dollars of the loan will finance imports of farm supplies, including fuel, irrigation equipment, machinery and spare parts, the statement said.
The remaining $10-million will go to public works projects to create jobs for poor villagers hardest hit by the famine, providing them with an income to buy food and farm supplies in rural areas, where more than 80% of Malawi’s 11-million people live.
The Bank said some of the money will also be used for studies to review options for avoiding or reducing the impact of similar disasters in future.
The loan will augment foreign exchange reserves and buffer the economy from pressures of currency depreciation and general inflation, the statement said.
A shortfall of 600 000 tons of maize, the staple food in Malawi, has left up to 3,2-million Malawians threatened with starvation as the southern African country battles with a debilitating drought.
The food crisis was caused by droughts in some regions and floods in others, as well as a scandal that saw maize sold off from the strategic grain reserves.
The International Monetary Fund early this month announced a 23-million-dollar emergency aid package to finance food imports because government’s food purchases were draining the budget. – Sapa-AFP