Government still planning free food distributions

The Malawian government is hoping to draw on donor and public resources to provide free food to the most vulnerable in coming months, the country's secretary for agriculture, Ellard Malindi, told IRIN on Wednesday.

The government said about two months ago that it would provide some 60,000 mt of maize to the elderly and to those who could not take part in food-for-assets or food-for-work programmes, but said at the time that it did not know where it would get the maize from.

Suffering from a severe maize shortage this year, the impoverished country has had to import about 150,000 mt of maize from South Africa and Tanzania for commercial sale. However, according to an inter-agency report on a recent food security assessment, the maize has been priced out of range of the large majority of poor Malawians, making them vulnerable to starvation until the next harvests in February and March.

Malindi told IRIN some programmes had already been planned, but he was waiting for the cabinet to meet and approve the free distributions. "I am just waiting for government approval to get the programme started," he said.

According to Malindi, while plans have not yet been finalised, the government hoped to appeal to donors for some food and other resources, and to use existing feeding projects to reach beneficiaries. However, he said: "I expect also that the government would also contribute something."

Aid agencies have raised concern over food security in the densely populated southern regions of Malawi in recent months, with indications that many families do not have food reserves to last them through December.