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Head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Malawi Wiepke van der Goot said on Monday there is no reason why Malawi should face hunger because ideas on food security have been developed over the years by several organisations which government can learn from.
A month ago, World Food Programme (WFP) said at least a million people face starvation, raising alert in government to come up with a road-map to find solutions to the problem.
President Bingu wa Mutharika is even reported to be contemplating to declare a state of national disaster.
But speaking in Mulanje where he visited the Integrated Food Security Programme (IFSP) funded by EU in conjunction with GTZ, van der Goot said he saw and was told by people in the district that they have a lot of food following projects which encourage them to move away from dependence on maize.
The projects in Mulanje include kitchen gardens, reduction of maize dependency by diversifying to low maize recipes, increasing yields without chemical fertiliser, local commercial maize seed production and the use of energy saving technologies.
“I am very impressed by what I have seen today. These are the ideas that the Ministry of Agriculture should be adopting so that hunger situations are avoided,” said van der Goot.
During the visit, children were seen scrambling and licking clean plates of food such as green pawpaw stew, sweet potato dish, mixed flour nsima with a low maize recipe and van der Goot said this was an indication that the country can move away from total dependence on maize dishes.
“The children are the future and if they are made to start moving away from depending on maize dishes, other types of food will become part of their life and food security will become a structural situation,” said van der Goot.
He said as a result, there will be no hunger situation, the children will not abscond from school and “they will grow up into law abiding citizens”.
Van der Goot encouraged government to take up the Mulanje example in formulating a new food policy.
A farmer in Matipwiri Village in the district, David Kabwato said after adopting new farming methods from GTZ, he is now able to harvest up to 50 bags of maize of 50kgs from a field where he was reaping eight bags only.
At Likalawe Village, a woman called Fanny Nanjiwa said she has diversified from dependency on maize dishes to vegetable and rice dishes to combat hunger.
IFSP project manager Christopher Messinger also said his organisation has taught people in Mulanje land conservation methods, agroforestry and afforestation, which are integrated with food security.
In June, 2004 when he hosted a cross section of people to a birthday party for Queen Elizabeth II, British High Commissioner to Malawi Norman Ling spoke out about the country’s food situation, describing as “fallacies” the repeated statements that Malawi is small, overpopulated, subject to erratic weather patterns and with few economic advantages.
“I disagree because small is beautiful as all economists know. Malawi is also an enormously fertile country,” said Ling who represents Malawi’s largest bilateral donor.
Ling added that with proper management, Malawi’s food needs could be met by putting a fraction of the country’s arable land under cultivation. The rest of the land might then be used to produce cash crops like tobacco, tea and sugarcanes.
“Sensible control of water resources combined with more irrigation could transform agriculture in this country,” he said.
Agriculture expert Charles Matabwa, who is now head of the civil service, is on record that Malawi has experienced serious food shortages in six of the past 10 years.
“Consequently, the vicious cycle of household food insecurity problems in this country has widened significantly over the last decade,” said Matabwa.
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