Sadc countries to face hunger

Fourteen million people in Sadc countries are expected to face hunger this year.

According to director of Food Agriculture Natural Resources at the Sadc Secretariat Margaret Nyirenda, this comes as a result of poor yield in last growing season coupled with climatic problems.

On Tuesday at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe, Nyirenda further explained that Sadc countries require a maximum cereal production of about 41.8 million tones and that for the last two growing seasons, production has dropped drastically putting resources of the member States at risk.

“During the last growing season we managed to harvest 35.1 million tones of cereals which is a drop by 0.2 percent. This therefore, means that about 14 million people across the region will this year require food support,” she said.

This does not spare Malawi which also registered poor yield as a result of insufficient rainfall in some districts.