The Civil Society Agriculture Network (CisaNet) has suggested that it is time to unlearn and be brave for Malawi following the recently released results of the 2013 Food Security Vulnerability Assessment by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) which indicate a looming hunger in the country.
The MVAC Report, whose survey was conducted in June and July 2023, estimates that 4.4 million people will likely not be able to meet their annual food requirement during the 2023/2024 consumptionperiod.
This represents 22 per cent of the projected total population of 19.6 people in the country.
Calling the situation worrisome, CisaNet has called upon government and stakeholders to put measures to help avert an impending food and nutrition crisis.
According to a statement signed by CisaNet board chairperson Herbert Chagona, the picture cannot get any gloomier than it already is.
“This comes on the backdrop of the Network recently being called as alarmists by its critics when it first made the comments on the hunger situation. On the other hand, the report further projects a decrease in the number of food insecure people livingin urban areas of Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu as compared to last year. CisaNet finds this not to be a consolation of any.
“The situation remains dire in the rural areas where an increase in the numbers of those affected has risen by 23 percent; from the 3.1 million population of the same, as projected in last year’s estimates. This is because majority of people live in the rural areas, hence their food insecurity will overshadow the decrease registered in town.
“CisaNet finds the situation worrisome and calls upon government and stakeholders to put measures to help avert an impending food and nutrition crisis,” reads part of the statement
Chagona further said Malawi seems to be moving in a one step forward, two steps backward while fully aware that climate-related hazards that include Cyclone Freddy the floods coupled with an influx of pests and diseases might have been cited as some of the reasons to have affected the national yield this time around.
“Our approach to enhancing food and nutrition security is more of a reactive than proactive, yet we can do better. Being an agro-based economy, commercial farming remains sporadic, with mostly the rural farmers- largely on subsistence occupation left to do much of the production.
“The situation to lure them into commercial farming has not been helped of late by a consistent lack of established structured market. In some instances in the recent past, some farmers have incurred post-harvest losses to as high as about 30 percent of their produce.
“Those that manage to sell their produce tend to always be at the mercy of the buyer. With no established and working systems to protect the producer from exploitation, many farmers remain trapped in poverty,” he said
He added; “perhaps, it is also time we started asking ourselves, as a nation, the tough questions. At CisaNet, the revelations in the latest MVAC Report are an expose of our lackadaisical approach towards agriculture.
“CisaNet welcomes interventions, but cautions the government against slowness implementing the plans. We cannot afford to move at a snail’s pace with such a humanitarian storm looking us in the eye as a nation. We should not allow this to turn into a larger catastrophe that it already is.
“On importation of the staple grain; reports remain rife of our neighbouring countries closing their borders for maize exports, with Zambia the recent example. This calls for authorities here to move with the utmost speed, at whatever they plan to do, in averting the crisis; to help save lives
“The bolt is slowly, but tightening down Malawi’s neck. Procrastination; be it systematic or personal, has claimed lives before. This has to stop, now. CisaNet, as a people-centred organisation, believes its powers lie in the numbers; so ton should governments. The population remains its heartbeat and every life matters.
“As such, any death related to starvation and hunger is equally a huge loss yet avoidable. We must unlearn what has been chocking our agriculture and devise and embrace innovative and progressive ways of taking care of our country! For further clarification, please contact the undersigned”.
Picture Source: Internet
