Malawi er blevet fremhævet af Verdensbanken og andre for at yde håndfast støtte til sine millioner af småbønder, som har svaret igen ved at hæve produktionen voldsomt og gøre det ellers så fattige sydafrikanske land selvforsynende med fødevarer – i stærk kontrast til flere af nabolandene: Det kan imidlertid også skabe problemer….
MALAWI: Food surplus creates political storm
JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2010 (IRIN): A surplus production of maize, Malawi’s staple food, will not prevent at least one million people from being food insecure (sulttruede), a forecast that has not pleased President Bingu wa Mutharika.
– I am disappointed that despite the ministry of agriculture and food security releasing crop estimates that Malawi has actually posted surpluses in the production of the staple crop, maize, some newspapers are reporting that over a million Malawians will require urgent food aid, he reportedly said.
Mutharika has threatened “to close down (local) newspapers that lie and tarnish my government’s image”, which has led to the rapid politicization of the food production sphere. Two crop assessments appear to have given rise to the situation.
Reports by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), and the Food Security Early Warning System of the regional body the Southern African Development Community, concur on (er enige om) the number of food insecure.
“The (multi-agency] Malawi Assessment Committee (MVAC) assessment projects that the food insecure population will increase to 1,1 million by October 2010,” FEWSNET said in its August 2010 Food Security Outlook Update.
SADC noted in its July 2010 report that the “final crop forecast indicates a 2010 cereal production of 3,57 million tons, which is 7 percent below the 2009 harvest of 3,83 million tons, but still 23 percent higher than the last 5-year average harvest of 2,9 million tons.”
“The overall surplus is made up of 1,16 million tons of surplus maize and 17.000 tons of surplus sorghum/millet (durra og hirse), less deficits in wheat and rice of 38.000 tons and 19.000 tons respectively. This is the fifth year running that the country has had surplus maize,” the regional body’s report commented.
Malawi’s spike (stigning) in food insecurity from 147.492 people in 2009 to 1,1 million in 2010 is a consequence of “the severe dry spells which affected the highly populated Southern Region of the country,” SADC said.
Malawi’s annual maize consumption is about 2,2 million tons by a population of roughly 15 million.
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