Two days after President Peter Mutharika declared that Malawi was in a state of disaster caused by prolonged rainfall shortage, Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) has predicted that vulnerable households particularly in the Southern Region will face a food \u2018crisis\u2019 as early as June this year.<\/p>\n
In its report on Malawi, Fewsnet attributes the situation to limited harvest that will force poor households to sell off their maize produce to earn money for survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouseholds with limited harvests, particularly in districts in the south, will start to engage in irreversible coping strategies in order to earn income for market purchases.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor and very poor households in parts of central and northern Malawi will face stressed outcomes during this period, while most of these areas will experience minimal outcomes during this period because they will be consuming their own production beginning in May with the 2016 harvest,\u201d reads the report.<\/p>\n
In his declaration, Mutharika cited the southern region as one of the areas likely to face severe hunger.<\/p>\n
\u201cProlonged dry spells have resulted into severe crop failure, particularly in the Southern Region and parts of the Central Region. The situation is slightly better in the north although some areas there have also been affected by the dry spells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major contributing factor to the food decline is the unfavourable weather condition for crop development resulting from dry spells the country experienced during the season, particularly in the Southern and Central Regions of the country,\u201d said Mutharika.<\/p>\n
Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Felix Jumbe, said Mutharika\u2019s decision to make the declaration vindicates the committee.<\/p>\n
Jumbe said government\u2019s handling of this year\u2019s Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) also contributed to the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes as a country we experienced devastating effects of climate change but the impact has been so heavy because of Fisp mismanagement,\u201d said Jumbe.<\/p>\n
Added Jumbe: \u201cThe declaration vindicates the committee\u2019s stand that the country needs a declaration considering the situation on the ground. The declaration, nonetheless, opens up the country to assistance from the donor community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commenting on the President\u2019s announcement, Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) National Director Tamani Nkhono- Mvula said the declaration is the only means of unlocking support for the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said the declaration raises the country\u2019s profile to the outside world that greatly appeals to donors and aid agencies,\u201d said Nkhono-Mvula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two days after President Peter Mutharika declared that Malawi was in a state of disaster caused by prolonged rainfall shortage, Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) has predicted that vulnerable households particularly in the Southern Region will face a food \u2018crisis\u2019 as early as June this year. In its report on Malawi, Fewsnet attributes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22584,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22579\/revisions\/22584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}