Food crisis set to worsen

Malawi is currently facing a critical food shortage, but according to the World Food Programme (WFP), an even worse disaster could be on the way with April's harvest expected to be sharply down.

President Bakili Muluzi declared a national disaster on Wednesday, and made an urgent appeal for food aid as officials warned that 70 percent of the country's 10 million people were at risk of starvation. He said that food shortages had reached critical proportions, especially in rural areas.

"The reports are really bad," WFP Country Director Adama Diop-Faye told IRIN. "The only problem is you can't prove people died from hunger but I'm sure the deaths we're recording are hunger-related one way or another."

She said at some distribution sites, people had not eaten for days and consumed WFP's high-protein corn-soya blend rations as soon as they were handed out. She added that anecdotal evidence suggested there are large numbers of kwashiorkor (extreme malnutrition) cases. Theft of food rations was also a concern for hungry villagers, who have begun to band together for protection at the distribution points.

The government has said it needs an estimated US $21.6m to avoid disaster, but has secured only US $1.6m.

WFP has in-country stocks of 798 mt of maize to feed 10,000 targeted households in 10 districts as an immediate response. But Diop-Faye acknowledged that this was only one-third of what was needed.

In response to the crisis, WFP is now buying 1,500 mt of maize on the local market - at highly inflated prices. An additional eight districts will be covered, and an estimated total of 200,000 people fed.

"Even with that intervention we are not solving the problem because more people are suffering from food shortages each day," Diop-Faye said.

Malawi's crisis is a combination of several factors, the WFP Country Director said. Flooding in early 2001 led to food shortages in several parts of the country, especially the densely populated south. Donor cutbacks in support for a farm input assistance programme that provided seeds and fertiliser to vulnerable families, and the government's decision to sell-off some of its national food reserve, also worsened the current situation.

Prices for the staple maize have rocketed by as much as 400 percent - well beyond the means of most Malawians.

Meanwhile, although the government has banned the sale of green maize, farmers are harvesting early - both to defeat crop thefts and to make some income. But early harvesting, combined with destructive rains at the beginning of the year in 15 of Malawi's 27 districts, means that another poor agricultural season is in store for Malawi.

The maize harvest, which begins in April, was expected to come in at 1.9 million mt. But production has now been reassessed to 1.5 million mt. National demand is 2.2 million mt.

"Donors should look beyond this current crisis as it is going to be worse next year," warned Diop-Faye.