05-0CT-B-10
FURTHER VIEWS ON THE SEVERITY OF MALAWI’S
IMPENDING FAMINE
|
|
Milongwe, 11 Oct. (AKI) - The current food emergency in the southern African
nation of Malawi underscores the difficulty much of the continent has in
feeding itself. Drought, a failed harvest and the effect of AIDS have left half
of Malawi's 10 million population reliant on food aid to survive until the
April harvest of maize - the country's staple crop. "It looks like it's
becoming a perennial problem," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
representative in Malawi, Mazlan Jusoh, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"The difficulty is there is no real coherent plan to address this chronic
situation on a long-term or even a medium-term basis," Jusoh said. But
with access to good technology and agronomic practices, adequate water and
fertilisers, Jusoh argues, Malawians can feed themselves.
"This year, there was good rainfall, but planting was late because
fertilisers arrived late. As a result, the crops were immature when the drought
struck," he continued, admitting that HIV/AIDS and poverty had also been a
factor in the failure of the harvest.
One in seven people in Malawi is affected by HIV/AIDS and the loss of adult
agricultural workers is fuelling the problem of extreme hunger. A depressed
economy and rising urban unemployment also means there are fewer people to send
cash back to their home villages.
Population growth rates that are "slightly too high" to sustain are
also a problem, said Jusoh. "Despite this, landholdings in Malawi are smaller than in Zambia and Mozambique, which means that agricultural yields are unlikely
to be economically viable," he added.
Increasing irrigation, but also crop intensification and crop diversification
are key to sustainable food security in the landlocked 13 percent Muslim
country, Jusoh emphasised.
Less than 10 percent of agriculture in Malawi is irrigated, leaving it
vulnerable to drought, despite the country's considerable natural water
resources: it has a major lake at its centre (Lake Malawi), as well as the
Shire river in the south.
"More areas of Malawi could be irrigated - especially near lakes and
rivers - if we had a definite plan. Getting these areas under irrigation could
increase the amount of staple food available in the longer term," Jusoh
noted.
"Malawi is a landlocked, disadvantaged country with high transportation
costs. There has got to be a serious effort to invest in its crop
infrastructure," he emphasised. "However, if you have a good
agricultural system with irrigated land and good agronomic practices, it can be
economically viable."
Malawi suffers from poor, infertile soil and bad environmental management,
Jusoh explained. "This can be addressed by training and intensive projects
to upgrade the ecological situation, including watershed management to
replenish depleted and polluted groundwater," he said.
"Forest management is also vital, especially in the southern part of
Malawi, where population pressures are very high and people with no other means
of a livelihood have been cutting down forests for fuel," Jusoh added.
Land degradation and siltation of the spawning grounds are also endangering
fish populations in Malawi.
Aid agencies are trying to distribute send and fertiliser ahead of the rapidly
approaching planting season, as many households lack the necessary money to
purchase these. But so far, contributions to the UN's emergency relief fund
have been miserably low: only 27 million out of the 88 million appealed for
have been committed international donors.
But local community involvement is essential if any programme is to be
sustainable, Jusoh stressed. "Many previous projects run by donors and
worth hundreds of millions of dollars have had no long-term impact because
Malawians have not learned self-reliance."
"Committees need to be set up at village level to encourage farmers to
save money from previous harvests so they can invest in capital assets and
agricultural inputs for the next planting season. They need to be encouraged to
save," he said.
Micro-credit schemes and increased participation in these by women are also
desireable because "women are much better at husbandry than men,"
Jusoh concluded.