Regional
severe food shortages and as at the end of
2012, the country needed US$30 million
to cover its shortfall.
So dire has the situation developed that
on the black market, for instance, a 50kg
bag of maize costs as much as K11,000,
rendering it out-of-bounds to the majority
of Malawians, most of who survive on
less than K370 per day.
The only option for this class of people
are the government’s grain selling point,
Admarc depots, where the prices are on
the low side and affordable. However,
the challenge is that Admarc depots have
been rationing the maize if they have it at
all, leaving people with no option but to
queue for days on end.
Prisons across Malawi have not been
spared, with most of them cutting their
food budgets because of rising prices,
erratic rains and the general economic
hardships.
Acting Chief Commissioner of Malawi
Prison Services (MPS), Kennedy Nkhoma,
confirmed to The Parade “the situation is
not pleasant at all because we don’t have
enough.
“First, we did not harvest enough last
year due to poor rains. Prisons annually
cultivate maize enough to cater for half
of their rations expecting government to
supplement the remaining half.
“In the current fiscal year, however, MPS
was given K224 million for food, 57.5
percent down from the previous year
when they got K481 million.
“Funding has been going down each fiscal
year because in 2011/12, the prisons food
and rations budget was at K528 million.”
There are currently over 13 000 inmates
in prisons across the country, up from
11 000 in 2011 because, according to
Nkhoma, 1 000 new inmates are now
coming in every year.
Malawi’s current troubles might seem
surprising and yet to those who follow
events in this small, poor and denselypopulated landlocked Southern African
nation, it is less an abrupt change in
fortunes than a series of self-inflicted
injuries unfolding in slow motion.
Food crisis became visible after the death
in office of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Prior to his demise, he had increased
farm subsidies as part of his Farm Input
Subsidy Programme.
Under the plan, the government gave
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subsidy vouchers to “smallholders to
buy a small amount of fertilizer and
seed so that they could replenish the soil
nutrients, take advantage of improved
seed varieties and at least achieve a
livable crop from their tiny farms.”
These vouchers were redeemable for
seeds and fertilizer at about one-third of
the normal cash cost.
And the results were instant. In 2005, a
year after expanded subsidies kicked in,
Malawi harvested a grain surplus of half
a million tonnes. In subsequent years it
exported grain to Lesotho and Swaziland,
as well as 400,000 tonnes of maize to
Zimbabwe.
Food experts and advocacy groups took
turns at international forums to extol
Malawi as an example of Africa’s “green
revolution.” Exploiting his new-found
success, President Mutharika called on
other African leaders to embrace his
policies.
Now the tables have turned, and Malawi
is facing severe food shortages under a
recently-sworn in Head of State, Joyce
Banda. TP
Picture courtesy of icslyouth.org
April 2013
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