Source: IRIN News

A bumper harvest has pushed the number of needy Malawians down to the lowest level in four years, but pockets of hunger are still a cause for concern, a crop assessment official has warned.

Malawi has recorded its biggest ever harvest of 2.6 million mt of maize, at least half-a-million more than its annual requirement of 2 million mt. The number of people in need of food aid is down to 980,000 this year from almost five million in 2005, when the country experienced one of the worst droughts in a decade and struggled to harvest just 1.3 million mt. The last bumper crop was 2.3 million mt in 1999/2000.

But the bounty is unevenly spread. In some southern and central regions, where production was affected by prolonged dry spells and floods, families have already started to run out of food. "Most of these households will require some assistance to obtain food in order to make it through this season," said Sam Chimwaza, country representative of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) in Malawi.

In affected areas the price of maize has begun to climb ahead of the lean season, which lasts from November to April, exacerbating the situation, FEWS NET said in a recent report. "About 833,000 people will need food aid and another 147,800 will be at high risk of limited access due to the rising cost of maize," commented Matthews Nyirenda, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

Alex Namaona, chief economist at the ministry of agriculture, said the authorities were trying to raise resources for food interventions.

Maize was selling for more than 27 kwacha per kg (19 US cents) in Kasungu, but was available at around 13 kwacha per kg (about 9 US cents) in districts where the harvest had been good. According to FEWS NET, the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee had highlighted the need for an intervention in its report two months ago, but this had yet to prompt a response.

Nyirenda said the government, donors and aid agencies were trying to coordinate a response to feed those in need. Targeted feeding and food-for-work programmes were already in place in the affected districts.

People in need often supplement their food sources with casual labour, or 'ganyu' - agricultural work in the fields of better-off households - in exchange for food, which covered another 30 percent of their food needs.

With a population of 12 million, around 80 percent of the workforce are subsistence farmers who depend on fertilisers to grow crops. The government plans to expand a successful subsidy scheme this season, which provided some small-scale farmers with fertiliser at half the commercial price.

"We have hiked up the quantity of fertiliser to 150,000 mt this year," said Namoana, "but our seed distribution programme has been affected by a lack of resources and funding."