The past month, I have been around the countryside in Karonga, Blantyre rural, Balaka and most of the South and I fear that the maize situation is quite bad.<\/p>\n
In all areas, vendors are already purchasing in bulk at K200 per kilogramme (kg) as estimates say 6.5 million or nearly 40 percent of Malawians need \u2018total food assistance\u2019, some of them right now.<\/p>\n
What happens in the next six-10 months is predictably serious. The cost of 50kg of the staple will exceed K15, 000, eluding the poor and the desperate.<\/p>\n
Two consecutive years of shortfall, Malawians must not only brace for the worst; they must address the more hidden impacts on children, on pregnant mothers, on people with chronic illnesses. Follow me:<\/p>\n
The natural result of food shortage is hunger; \u2018the psychological state of discomfort from a chronic shortage of food intake\u2019 whose effect on an individual is often unnoticed.<\/p>\n
Children who live a life of food shortages will not achieve normal development milestones at the ages expected due to lack of essential proteins, vitamins, minerals and nutrients.<\/p>\n
Hunger will invariably lower the child\u2019s immunity, and will, therefore, succumb to disease. Growth rate slows down; the child faces heightened risks of stunting.<\/p>\n
Much research continues to show that malnourished children not only experience delayed cognitive development but many have low IQ leading to poor performance in school. In acute cases, nutrient deficiencies do lead to irreversible brain damage.<\/p>\n
Globally, over two million children are affected by \u2018severe eyesight problems\u2019 while some become irreversibly blind due to vitamin A deficiencies alone.<\/p>\n
Prenatally, inadequate food intake increases the risk of premature birth, low birth weight, smaller head size and lower brain weight. Oftentimes, this leads to early death or sub-optimal development and poor economic performance in adulthood.<\/p>\n
It might be hard to quantify but some of the factors that explain the widespread lack of innovation, creativity and independent thinking regarding economic enterprise are to be found in poor nutrition, chronic ill health and limited stimulation in early childhood.<\/p>\n
After all, we know that children who are born small for gestational age remain shorter, lighter in weight, have smaller head circumferences and can hardly grow into independent productive citizens.<\/p>\n
And this not all!<\/p>\n
We also know that being hungry is associated with poor social skills and limited circles of interaction, not only due to physical weakness but to feelings of embarrassment. Hungry children are put down by high levels of anxiety and depression that often goes unnoticed.<\/p>\n
Children feel stigmatised, isolated and ashamed of lack of food in the household and in school. Many studies have shown that chronically hungry children are significantly likely to repeat grades, exhibit stress and show behavioural disorders reflected in aggressive behaviour, mistrust and a propensity for self-isolation.<\/p>\n
To sum up, child hunger is complex and its impacts devastating both in the short and long terms. Child hunger is at once a health problem; an educational problem and a social problem that drags the child in all faculties.<\/p>\n
Child hunger is an economic problem and aserious dis-investment for the growth and development of nations because it delivers a weak unprepared workforce incapable of innovation. It is a major human development detractor.<\/p>\n
What about HIV\/Aids and treatment?<\/p>\n
Food shortages put many women at risk of HIV infection. Numerous young families split as men trek from rural to urban points in search of work and business opportunities. More women turn to transactional sex to raise the money for food.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, we know that antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a nutrition-dependent therapy which defaults on its therapeutic promise when nutrition is poor. Food insecurity is not just associated with increased risk behaviours; it is also closely linked to increased Aids-related deaths<\/p>\n
Much worse shortage of food is known to reduce adherence to ART with all the implications; for resistance, violent resurgence of Aids and certain death. Perhaps more important is increased HIV transmissibility.<\/p>\n
In studies done in Malawi, Swaziland and other African countries, hunger, sex for cash, increased HIV infection and Aids-related deaths form a virulent cycle hard to break unless governments invest in livelihood for the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
In all studies, women consistently cite their own hunger or that of children for getting into sex work. Those already infected got into sex for cash \u2018in order to afford healthy foods\u2019 to manage their condition.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, persistent food shortage and hunger can trigger a resurgence of HIV incidence and deaths more so in the rural and urban poor who constitute the majority.<\/p>\n
As we close, what are we saying in all this?<\/p>\n
Food shortage and poor nutrition are serious development matters which call for serious policy and strategic attention. Good nutrition is the essence of human development and the ultimate determinant of a productive education system.<\/p>\n
Most unfortunately, the Malawi food industry demonstrates the worst of our achievements as an agricultural economy. The industry has failed to attain levels of productivity, processing and distribution expected to support a growing population in spite of being the major pre-occupation.<\/p>\n
Yes, it is noble policy to first ensure that citizens have access to adequate, varied foods as a foundation for sound human development in mind and in body. I can now see Kamuzu\u2019s wisdom in making \u2018self-sufficiency in food the first budget\u2019 for the country.<\/p>\n
Enough food releases resources needed for investment in the productive sectors of which agriculture itself remains the mainstay. Presently, government will divert nearly K150 billion from development investment \u2018to feed the people\u2019 in addition to an unsustainable highly controversial Farm Input Subsidy Programme.<\/p>\n
Not only does food shortage and hunger create mediocre populations and fuel HIV infections but it reduces adherence to therapy crippling good efforts that government makes to engage its citizens in productive work.<\/p>\n
Government will do well to address the heightened risk of HIV infection, abandonment of treatment and risk of the emergence of resistance. It is imperative to protect what gains Malawi has made in HIV\/Aids.<\/p>\n
We take it for granted but food is a development factor deserving of strong direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The past month, I have been around the countryside in Karonga, Blantyre rural, Balaka and most of the South and I fear that the maize situation is quite bad. In all areas, vendors are already purchasing in bulk at K200 per kilogramme (kg) as estimates say 6.5 million or nearly 40 percent of Malawians need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28441","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\/28441","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=28441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28443,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28441\/revisions\/28443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}