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Malawi among food secure nations

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has placed Malawi among top three best performing countries in Southern Africa in terms of agriculture production in 2014.

FAO sub-region coordinator for Southern Africa, David Phiri, shared the news on Saturday in Lilongwe during a breakfast interaction with journalists at Wamkulu Palace to share the outcomes of extra-ordinary meeting for Agriculture and food security and a joint meeting between ministers responsible for agriculture and health in Sadc.

Maize_grainariesPhiri said only South Africa and Tanzania have beaten Malawi in producing cereals as the two countries are ranked first and second, respectively.

“In 2014, we expect that Malawi will be third biggest producer of cereals in the sub-region and that is no mean feat for a small area like Malawi. It means that the country must be doing something right,” he said.

Maize is Malawi’s major cereal and staple food and the country largely depends on agriculture which supports livelihoods of 80 percent of the country’s total population.

Phiri largely attributed Malawi’s strides in agriculture production in recent years to the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) which he said has provided the minimum that smallholder farmers want to survive and to go beyond survival by increasing their production.

“So, the subsidy programme has played an important role in making sure that Malawi is a star in the sub-region with regard to agriculture production,” he added.

According to Phiri, no major country in the world has ever developed without using agriculture as a base and that none of those developed has not developed agriculture even to date.

He added: “Malawi has been an envy of many countries in Africa in terms of agriculture and Malawi should be proud of some of its policies that have enabled to grow agriculture sector.

He said it is a fact that in most countries, Malawi inclusive, urban areas are struggling to produce enough and decent jobs hence imperative for governments in the sub-region to spur agriculture sector growth for people to have good living standards.

Phiri said this year, cereal production in Southern Africa is expected to increase by 12 percent from last year but lamented that the region is performing poorly in the area of nutrition indicators citing 30 percent of children as being stunted.

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One Comment

  1. Christopher Manyamba-Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well Being, University of Pretoria.

    During the SADC Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security conference which recently took place in Malawi, the FAO placed Malawi among the top three best performing countries in Southern
    Africa in terms of agriculture production in 2014. This national production has
    unfortunately been interpreted as food security. High maize production in the face of abject poverty and chronic food insecurity is no reason to blow a trumpet in Malawi.

    Malawi signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
    Compact in 2010, has in place National Agricultural Investment Plan, Food
    Security (2006) and Nutrition Policies (2011), allocates more than 10% of the
    national annual budget to agriculture and implements the Fertilizer Input
    Subsidy Programme (FISP). Poverty
    reduction and food security remain the central policy challenge in Malawi. The
    Malawi Constitution recognises the right to food, while the Malawi’s Growth and
    Development Strategy (MGDS) recognizes that food security is a prerequisite for
    sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. Despite these sound
    policies, Malawi has remained a food insecure
    nation at household level (MDHS, 2010, FAO, 2013; FEWSNET, 2013; WDI, 2013).Misinformation on the population’s
    food insecurity may affect Government and international organisations’ decision
    making and food security interventions, a disadvantage to the poor.

    The definition of food security was officially endorsed at the 2009 Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security (CFS, 2012), and points to the availability, utilization, access and stability dimensions. Malawi’s food security is generally defined in terms of adequate production of and access to maize, the country’s staple crop. However, national production or yield of maize does not translate into household food security and should not at all cost be interpreted as food security. For instance, Malawi has in the past 10 years
    achieved the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
    2000 kilogrammes per hectare target, but has remained food insecure at
    household level. Many households experience an annual
    hunger season between November and March, which occurs during the planting and
    sole rainy season in months prior to the main harvest (Feed the Future, 2012).
    The UN reported more than 1.63 million people, or 11 per cent of the
    population, were facing severe food shortages in January 2013 (WFP, 2013). More
    than half of the children under five are stunted and almost one in five show
    signs of wasting due to under-nutrition (FAO, 2013; World Bank, 2013; National
    Statistics Office and ICF Macro, 2011).

    In summary, evidence of household food security status in Malawi should not be
    informed by national maize yield or production figures obtained from crop
    estimates. While it is widely accepted that no single food security measure is perfect, the National Statistical Office’s Integrated Household Survey, Welfare Monitoring Survey, and the Demographic
    Health Surveys provide official statistics that reflect household food security
    and nutrition status in Malawi. Enhanced interpretability of these statistics and
    authenticity are crucial in creating the most effective and sustainable interventions
    to attain long-term sustainable livelihoods and food security.

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