The World Food Programme (WFP) says there has been a positive response to humanitarian assistance to help the two million people affected by hunger in Malawi amid fears that the figure may further rise following heavy rains that have already caused flooding in some of the country.
The Malawi government with assistance from donors such as the WFP and the United States Agency for International Development is providing monthly food rations to the affected people to last up to the end of the next quarter of the year when people will start harvesting the current crop.
Each family is getting 50 kilos of maize, ten kilos of beans, five kilos of corn soya bran and five litres of cooking oil, said WFP acting Country Director Baton Osmani,.
“This food is well balanced so that the recipients eat all the required food groups,” he said.
Osmani told Zodiak Online during a food distribution exercise in Salima that donors have so far provided $58.5 million of the required $63 million in financial aid – representing a deficit of about $5 million.
“World Food Programme mobilizes this food. We get the resources from donors, we transport it, we bring it up to here, and then it’s the NGOs who mobilize the community, identify the most vulnerable people and those who need the food in close liaison with the national authorities”, Osmani explained.
He said he was hopeful that the remaining amount of funds will be raised soon taking into consideration the positive response that donors have provided in the past months.
About 16 districts have been affected by hunger in Malawi largely owing to poor harvest of the main staple food maize caused by drought and floods in the last growing season.
“The food we receive is enough. There is no way someone can give you a gift and you it’s not enough”, said Christina Njilika, a mother of six, who is one of those in need of food aid. “We are so grateful because this food will help us to have energy so that we can work in our fields”.
In the current 2012/2013 growing season rains are falling on a rate the experts call ‘normal to above normal’ and this has raised fears of an increase in the numbers of people that may need food aid in the coming months in some areas where floods have washed away the maize crop like Nsanje and Salima.
“This period, January to March, represents the peak of the hunger season. We don’t estimate and an increase, however there may be incidents such as floods where people may be in need of assistance and we are assessing the situation and we’ll respond as it may be required”, said Baton.
According to the acting WFP country representative, an assessment team involving the UN, government and NGO partners will be dispatched to evaluate the effects of the recent floods and what of assistance the effected household may need.PENTAX DIGITAL CAMERA
The irony of the current food shortage in Malawi is not that the country did not harvest enough but that other parts suffered poor harvest as a result of floods and drought. These, according to the minister of agriculture professor Peter Mwanza, are effects of climate change. He suggests irrigation and improved technology could be a long lasting solution.
“We have a hefty programme to say every Malawian who has land that is irrigable should grow two or more types of crops – one that is rain fed and another that relies on irrigation or residual moisture. This will definitely make Malawi to be food secure in all year round in the long run”.
