Food shortages loom in Malawi
2005-07-12 13:40
Blantyre - Up to 4.2 million Malawians face food shortages in the wake of a drought which reduced the poor Southern African country's staple maize output by 24%, a report to assess harvest said on Tuesday.
"Malawi will require food aid of 271 970 tons until the next harvest," the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) said in a 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 MVAC, which consists of a consortium of organisations including government, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations.
The group has visited almost all of Malawi's 28 districts before making the assessment, it said.
Malawi planned to import 300 000 tons of maize to the value of $50m from South Africa and required two million tons every year to feed its population, 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 less than $1 a day.