Need for food assistance rising after rains fail

Almost 500,000 mt of food is needed to assist up to two million Malawians facing food shortages this year, a senior official said on Tuesday. Principal secretary for agriculture, Andrew Daudi, told IRIN plans were underway to spend over US $45 million to import 250,000 mt of relief maize, mainly from South Africa. "If our request to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) for assistance is successful, we will be in a position to deal with the current shortages. But right now the situation is under control since the harvest period has just been completed and rural families have food," he said. Government officials in February estimated a maize crop of 1.3 million mt, far below the 2.1 million mt requirement, because of the six week dry spell that affected the main maize growing areas. Last year's harvest was particularly poor in the country's south and central regions following similar dry conditions. Daudi noted that once again the areas most affected by the shortages were in the south and centre of the country, but maize prices were currently affected. "Compared to the same time last year, the price of maize has been stable. However, we must wait and see as the season progresses to see if there is an increase," said Daudi. Meanwhile, a recent report by the UN Disaster Management Technical Working Group said the number of severely malnourished children had peaked, pointing to a 26 percent decrease in admissions to Nutrition Rehabilitation Units (NRUs) from February to March. The UN Children's Fund has distributed supplies to all NRUs to meet the May and June requirement, but there is an urgent need for financial support to ensure therapeutic milk, drugs and other basic treatment items are available throughout the next hunger season, the report said. Malawi last year staged a slight recovery after a spell of three droughts in four years. At the height of the crisis about three million Malawians needed food aid out of a population of 12 million. In January 2004, the number of beneficiaries had dropped to 400,000 people.