ADMARC forced to ration maize as food crisis deepens

Malawi's state grain marketer, ADMARC, has been forced to ration maize sales in drought-hit parts of the country as the food security situation worsens, according to a new early warning report. Rising demand for maize in the southern region has impacted on commercial market prices, leading to long queues for the subsidised grain available from ADMARC outlets, explained a report by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET). As a result, ADMARC has been forced to ration maize sales to 25 kg per person per day, and sometimes as low as 10 kg. "The fact that this is happening when food aid distribution is underway implies that the volume of food aid being provided is not adequate," FEWS NET commented. At least 4.2 million Malawians, or 34 percent of the population, are at risk of food shortages brought on by the country's worst drought in a decade and compounded by the late delivery of fertilisers and seed. But the FEWS NET report raises the possibility that the numbers needing food assistance might increase to 4.6 million as maize prices climb. According to women interviewed by FEWS NET during a recent field trip to the south of the country, the rations last less than a week, and maize supplies in the ADMARC markets sometimes last less than a day. John Varghese of the relief NGO, World Vision, who visited parts of the southern region last week, said the number of households in need of food was increasing, as were maize prices. "In some areas, people told us they were buying 50 kg bags of maize meal for 1,500 to 2,000 kwacha [about US $12 to $16 per 50 kg or 24 to 32 US cents per kg]." In July and August the average price of maize meal was between seven to 25 US cents per kg. The Mulanje district in the south has recorded the highest maize prices, between 20 to 24 US cents per kg. An initial food needs assessment in Malawi by the UN, the government and NGOs was based on a maize price of between 15 and 18 US cents per kg. Food aid distribution started in June in many parts of the south, where the UN World Food Programme is distributing food in seven of the 17 districts, targeting more than 500,000 beneficiaries. Britain's Department for International Development and the European Union are tackling food aid distribution in the affected areas of the central and northern regions, with its partner the Malawi Red Cross handling three of the six districts. The Red Cross hopes to reach more than 300,000 beneficiaries, which have been divided into two categories - "the able-bodied who can participate in labour intensive activities and those who are elderly, disabled and unable to work," said Red Cross spokesman Francis Musasa. Beneficiaries receive 50 kg bags of maize-meal and some pulses. Low food supplies have also affected children. "The school dropout rate has increased," Varghese remarked. According to a recent UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) situation report, the Nutrition Rehabilitation Units (NRUs) have recorded the highest number of severely malnourished children in the south, where the agency is managing about 57 percent of the total national caseload. The school dropout rate in the 14 emergency-prone districts in Malawi has reached 15.7 percent, while in some areas the rate among orphans was as high as 53.9 percent, according to Girmay Haile, head of UNICEF's Social Policy, Advocacy and Communication unit in Malawi. Preliminary results from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey showed very poor nutritional status of children. UNICEF said some 48 percent of children under five in Malawi are stunted, five percent are wasted or severely malnourished, and 22 percent are underweight or malnourished. The nutritional status of children in Malawi had not improved since 1992, and has been aggravated by the impact of HIV/AIDS. According to UNICEF, in paediatric wards one in three severely malnourished patients and two in five malnourished children were HIV-positive. Malawi has an extremely high HIV/AIDS prevalence, which affects an estimated 16.4 percent of people aged 15 to 49 and accounts for some 70 percent of hospital deaths. Around 400,000 children younger than 15 years have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, with many of them now cared for by relatives who are already suffering economic hardship. As an emergency intervention, UNICEF could offer therapeutic feeding to at least 3,500 severely malnourished children per month by providing milk, supplements, drugs and essential life-saving items to NRUs. It would also support school feeding activities in 249 schools in 10 districts. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, $51 million in food and nutritional assistance, and $37 million in emergency agricultural assistance, is needed to help the Malawian government ease the chronic food insecurity the nation now faces. UNICEF said it had a funding shortfall of $750,000 for its nutritional intervention programmes in Malawi.