Fr Joseph Moloka Sikwese
President Peter Mutharika recently declared a state of disaster in 11 of Malawi’s 28 districts.
This should be a cause for concern for every Malawian.
The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) reports that approximately 22 percent of people in the country is at risk of hunger until the next harvest in 2026.
This means at least one in every five Malawians faces hunger.
This is bitter food for thought considering that the country has fertile farmland, favourable weather and plenty of water to produce enough food for its people.
After 61 years of self-rule, the country should not still be struggling with hunger as a recurring national crisis.
Yet, year after year, hunger persists like a stubborn illness.
Even more troublingly, our Parliament spends countless hours debating hunger as if it were a new or unexpected emergency.
This unfortunate routine exposes a lack of seriousness in our national planning and priorities.
As highlighted by the second stanza of our national anthem, Malawi is a richly blessed. We have abundant water bodies, including Lake Malawi, Africa’s third-largest freshwater lakes, and numerous perennial rivers flowing through fertile plains. However, over 80 percent of our farmers entirely rely on rain-fed agriculture, leaving our food security vulnerable to changing weather and climate.
We only need to look at desert nations such as Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates—to see what strategic investment and commitment can achieve.
These countries face harsher climatic conditions than Malawi, yet hunger is not a chronic disaster or national outcry. The difference lies in their vision, discipline and seriousness.
Where is the impact of the investment our country has made since independence in 1964?
Every year, Parliament allocates funds to the Greenbelt Authority to promote and expand large-scale irrigation farming along the lakeshore and riverbanks.
This initiative should be transformative, but we must ask ourselves: Where is the impact?
We have seen project launch ceremonies, complete with official handshakes, media tours, ministerial and presidential speeches, and flashy brochures. Yet hunger persists.
If the Greenbelt Authority and irrigation programmes were fulfilling their mandate, Malawi would not be declaring food shortages today.
The problem is not the lack of resources, but the absence of accountability, follow-through and measurable outcomes.
Similarly, the government’s much-publicised megafarms initiative to accelerate commercial agriculture has received significant public funds and selected individuals and cooperatives obtained millions in loans to boost food production.
Yet here we are, facing chronic hunger.
This situation compels us to ask difficult questions: Were these funds managed responsibly? Were beneficiaries selected based on their capacity or their political loyalty? Were the loans and farms monitored with proper oversight?
I dare ask: Did production actually increase or the money just disappeared like hot air?
If the megafarms and the Greenbelt initiatives were functioning as intended, Malawi would not be in this predicament.
It is time to act and we must choose seriousness over pettiness.
A serious nation does not repeat the same actions and expect different results.
To break this cycle, Malawi must commit to large-scale irrigation and water harvesting; professional agricultural extension services; farm mechanisation, not clinging to the hoe of the 19th century; agro-processing to reduce post-harvest losses; and strict monitoring and accountability.
There should be consequences for wrong prioritisation and misuse of public resources
Food security is not merely an agricultural topic—it is a matter of national dignity, peace, economic growth and human survival.
A hungry nation cannot build, innovate and prosper.
Malawi must choose seriousness today or hunger will continue to define our independence more than our freedom ever will.
