More Malawians hit by hunger
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) says about 3.6 million people may be food insecure in the country, a rise from earlier projections which put the figure at 3.3 million.
Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) had earlier projected that about 3.3 million of the country’s 17 million population will be food insecure following a 28.4 percent decrease in maize production in the 2017/18 planting season.
But according to Dodma, which is still collecting data, some areas were not included in the report.
Such places include Traditional Authority (T/A) Tambala in Dedza where about 3 046 households (15 000 people) are reported to be in need of food aid.
Speaking when he commissioned the distribution of relief items at T/A Tambala’s headquarters yesterday, Minister of Homeland Security Nicholas Dausi said Dodma should consider the new figures that are coming in although they were not captured by Mvac.
He said: “We know that the report said only 3.3 million people that needed food, but some areas were omitted in the report like here in T/A Tambala. All those people who were omitted in the Mvac assessment should be given maize.”
Dedza District Council chairperson Sekelani Layideni said the area has poor soil which leads to low maize production.
Each affected household will receive one 50 kilogramme bag of rice.
According to the Mvac report, maize production decreased from 3 464 139 tonnes in the 2016/17 Third Round Agricultural Production Estimates to 2 697 959 tonnes in the 2017/18 third round estimates.
