Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) says it has reached out to 1.1 million households of the targeted 1.265 million with relief support under the Lean Season Food Insecurity Response.
Speaking in an interview in Lilongwe on Friday during a media tour to enable journalists appreciate distribution and logistics of the programme, Dodma deputy director for disaster response Fyawupi Mwafongo said the programme is also targeting the beneficiary households with maize and cash transfers.
will continue
The programme rolled out in September this year, a month earlier than the lean season period which starts in October, to ensure that the relief is distributed in good time.
Mwafongo said Dodma has engaged train operators to ferry maize from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) in Lilongwe to some areas in the country accessible by train.
He said: “Currently, at least 1.1 million households have been reached with relief support. We are hopeful that by December, we will have reached all the councils.
“However, the exercise will continue until March next year. When we do the distributions in the Northern Region, we will have covered all the beneficiaries.”
Mwafongo said Dodma has resolved to use both rail and road to transport maize to ensure that more maize is transported, adding so far Dodma is shipping relief food from Lilongwe to Liwonde in Machinga where it is then loaded in trucks for distribution.
Meanwhile, the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) is conducting an assessment whose findings will guide on whether the number of beneficiaries should be increased,
On his part, NFRA operations director Cosmas Samuel Pelekani said the agency is continuing with maize procurements so that there is readily available maize to respond to hunger and stabilise prices.
He said NFRA has so far procured about 83 000 metric tonnes (MT) of which 16 960MT has already been dispatched to Dodma for distribution.
NFRA has also released 5 874MT to the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) for maize price stabilisation.
The last Mvac report estimated that 5.7 million people will be food-insecure during the lean season which starts from October to March following severe dry spells and other factors.
The total food requirement was estimated to be 261 574MT.
