PH
Malawian President Peter Mutharika has announced that his Government has only managed to raise $63 million out of a total amount of $300 million needed for relief maize to feed the country’s starving population, Nyasa Times reports.
Following his declaring of the region as a disaster zone, Mutharika now faces the challenge of feeding approximately half of the country’s population, 8.4 million citizens, due to a dire food shortage being faced due to persistent drought across the country.
While stating that Malawi’s food production will decrease by 50 percent this year, Mutharika assured citizens that no-one will die of hunger in the country while stating that Government is set to buy 1.3 million tonnes of maize from both local and international markets.
According to Agriculture Minister George Chaponda, the country is currently in search of maize from surrounding areas as well as Europe, in a bid to avert a food crisis.
“We have no alternative but to import about one million metric tons of white maize to fill the food gap,” said the minister.
The development follows a finding made by the World Food Programme (WFP) indicating that approximately 32 million people are in need of food aid due to a rapid decrease in crop production in southern Africa.
