UN makes $88 million "smart appeal" to head off hunger

The United Nations launched a US $88 million appeal on Tuesday to cover both immediate food aid needs and to boost next season's agricultural production in drought-hit Malawi. At least 4.2 million people - 34 percent of the landlocked country's population - are at risk of serious food shortages until the new harvest in March 2006. There is also concern that without intervention to raise output, Malawi's impoverished farm households could face another food crisis next year. The novel two-track approach aims to augment the government's own aid efforts - despite limited resources - to assist the victims of Malawi's worst harvest in a decade, combined with a home-grown initiative to subsidise seed and fertiliser to smallholder maize farmers. "The government's doing all the right things, but it just doesn't have the resources to do all that is required," said UN Resident Coordinator Michael Keating. "If, in the year of the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, you are looking for a country that is responsible but needs help - this is it." Of the $87.8 million requested by the UN, the World Food Programme has asked for $48.8 million to feed two million people in the south of the country - the worst-affected region. The remaining 2.2 million in need will be assisted largely by government voucher schemes and cash interventions. Estimates of the number of Malawians requiring assistance are linked to the price of maize in the months ahead. In July, well ahead of the traditional 'lean season' at the end of the year, the average open market price of maize was already above 15 US cents per kg. If the price rises to between 25 and 32 US cents per kg, the expected number of people in need jumps from 4.2 million to 4.6 million. "A financial contribution now could make an enormous difference to minimise the likelihood of another food crisis, because people are living close to the edge," Keating pointed out. Malawi's soils are generally poor, and farmers typically work less than 0.4 hectares of land, relying on rain to water their crops. In response to four consecutive years of reduced harvests, which have strained existing coping systems, the government has launched an initiative to subsidise 70 percent of the total cost of 100,000 mt of maize fertiliser for small-scale producers. However, even at a subsidised price of around $8 for a 50 kg bag, an estimated 1 million farming households cannot afford to use fertiliser. The UN's so-called "smart appeal" calls on donor funding for the urgent delivery of free fertiliser and 5 kg of seed to the poorest farmers by mid-September, ahead of the first planting in mid-October. The UN conservatively estimates that free inputs would add 500,000 mt to maize production next year - a significant boost to the 1.3 million mt harvest achieved in the 2004/05 season. Keating dismissed as misplaced the debates in development circles over the impact of free inputs and the dangers of dependency. "I think these are issues to be met in a medium-term food security plan [to be developed with the government] - not when people need desperate help to plant their fields, and not to be in a food security crisis next year."