Blantyre | Thursday
MALAWI has launched an international appeal for $21,6-million to buy maize to avert the country’s worst ever food crisis, the government said on Wednesday.
Food shortages had ”reached crisis proportions, with about 70% of the 11-million population hit by food shortages and are going hungry,” Vice President Justin Malewezi said in a statement.
The government ”is seeking immediate assistance in procurement, transportation and logistic capacity to avert the worst of the crisis”, he said.
President Bakili Muluzi on Wednesday termed the food shortage a ‘disaster’ in the impoverished southern African country, state radio said, adding that he made the decision after being told by traditional chiefs that the situation had reached a crisis level in rural areas, home to 90% of the population.
”The food crisis is likely to extend to next year because people already started eating green maize, which will significantly reduce maize yields this year,” Muluzi was quoted by the radio as saying.
Despite the current shortfall of 180 000 tons of food, Malawi expects a record yield in maize, a staple food here, this year.
Malewezi met donors including UN agencies, the World Bank and the European Union on Monday to discuss the situation.
”Donors have already showed willingness to support us,” the vice president’s statement said.
Malawi has received only about 70 000 tons of maize from South Africa and Tanzania, and has blamed transport bottlenecks for slowing delivery of the needed 180 000 tonnes.
Food shortages this year have been blamed on last year’s floods, which hit half of the country’s 27 districts, and the export of 60 000 tons of maize to Kenya from strategic grain reserves.
Food shortages strike each year in Malawi, where 60% of rural households are malnourished. – Sapa-AFP