Up to 4,2-million Malawians face food shortages in the wake of a drought that reduced the poor Southern African country’s staple maize output by 24%, a report to assess Malawi’s harvest said on Tuesday.
”Malawi will require food aid of some 271 970 tonnes until the next harvest,” the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee said in its report.
The country of 12-million people, wedged between Zambia and Mozambique, was hardest-hit in the south followed by the centre and the north, said the report by the committee, which consists of a consortium of organisations including the government, United Nations agencies and NGOs.
The group visited almost all of Malawi’s 28 districts before making the assessment, it said.
Malawi plans to import 300 000 tonnes of maize to the value of $50-million (R332,5-million) from South Africa and requires two million tonnes every year to feed its population, the government has said.
Food security is a pressing issue in Malawi where, despite a huge freshwater supply, fields have little irrigation and most farming remains small-scale, and about 60% of the population lives below the poverty line of $1 a day. — Sapa-AFP