Malawi's maize output rose to an estimated 2.5 million mt in the 1999/2000 crop year, up from 2.25 million mt the previous year, President Bakili Muluzi told parliament this week.
Muluzi attributed the good harvest to a starter-pack scheme launched two years ago under which subsistence farmers were free packs of fertilizer and seed. He said Malawi had about 860,000 mt of maize in its strategic grain reserves.
Malawi and South Africa were the only countries in the 14-nation Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) that had a surplus maize crop in 1999, according to the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS).
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