In our delegation, comprising our esteemed indefatigable unimpeachable Professor Ms Joyce Befu, MG 66, MEGA-1, and us, her faithful boots in the mud, wish to appeal to President Peter Arthur Mutharika to declare a “state of catastrophe” over the whole Malawi.
He s h o u l d i g n o r e t h o se respons ibl e f o r biased interpretation of the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) and Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSnet) to stop politicizing the hunger situation in Malawi and feeding His Excellency with lies. The President, this president, Ar thur Peter Mutharika, lives by his word. He declared that he will treat all Malawians equally. So, we urge him to ignore the recent recommendations that appear to favour certain districts over others. Certain districts should not benefit f rom the 200 thousand tonnes of maize procured from Zambia.
Recently, on 25 October 2025 to be prec i se, a s tate c ata s t rophe wa s declared in 12 distr icts of the count r y. These are Phalombe, Mulanje, Thyolo, Neno, Mwanza, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Nsanje and Balaka in the South while in the Centre they include Lilongwe, Salima and Nkhotakota. Only? As Boni Kalindo was quoted as saying in social media, people are eating chitedze in Machinga, Mangochi and parts of Zomba.
Under stand Ka lindo. Eating chitedze symbolises an act of desperation. And Nkhata Bay, Likoma (and Chizumulu), and Rumphi, where people rely on cassava, are equally desperate. It is uncharacteristically dry and hot.
Cassava stems, no matter how tall they grow and green their leaves are, are not food. Stems are used for the next planting season (mbeu). Or they are left to rot or are used as wood (vipolokotu). The leaves are eaten (mayani). The leaves are very nice, if well cooked. It is the tubers that count (chaukurya). MVAC and FEWS net should reassess the food situation in these areas by sampling out a few stems to examine how many and how large the tubers are. You will see that the situation, the state of catastrophe, in Nkhota Kota is far from being different from Nkhata Bay, Likoma, Chizumulu, and Rumphi. Yet Nkhota Kota is within the state of catastrophe.
Mulanje and Phalombe produce more and better quality cassava but they are considered in state of catastrophe.
What is more, ask the people of these areas if cassava i s t h e i r stapl e anymore? The answer will be no. They, too, like every Malawian these days, rely on maize. Ntcheu is one of the districts that the state of catastrophe has affected. In the valleys of Ntcheu, in Bwanje, you see families cuddled together thinking about their next meal.
In Mzimba and Kasungu, there is not enough food. The state of catastrophe ha s a f f e c ted Ka ronga and Chitipa, too, where the weather has not been favourable to the proper growth of rice, millet and other pulses. Ntchisi, Dowa, Mchinji, and Dedza the situation is the same.
Let us admit that weather patterns have changed, which have brought with them prolonged dry periods; not favourable to the growth of maize and water-intensive crops. We are living its effects now. The whole country is suffering.
The long term solution to sustainable maize planting is heavy irrigation. That is why we believe government should continue with the Shire Valley Transformation programme so that one day Chikwawa, Nsanje, Blantyre, and twin districts of Mwana and Neno should have bumper food. The Salima- Lilongwe Water project (SLWSC) w i l l suppl y drinking and irrigation water to Lilongwe and surrounding districts. Great investments
