Food security in Malawi
[3] Today, many programs are put in place in Malawi to address climate instability, poverty and diversification in term of both the economy and agriculture.
[8] A government agency named ADMARC (Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation) controlled the purchasing and trading of smallholder cash crops and fertilizers prior to 1998.
[10] To acquire loans from the World Bank, ADMARC became a partially privately owned company and eliminated its fertilizer subsidies in 1988/1989.
[13] The high number and increasing severity of droughts and floods since 1990 has affected much of the country's population—farmers had little ability to adapt to or recover from disasters, making them more vulnerable to future events, and the cycle of poverty and hunger worsened.
[24] However, the NFRA quickly incurred a debt of 1 billion Malawian kwacha (MK) due to the high interest rate of 56% of which it bought 165,000 metric tons of maize, according to the IMF.
The IMF’s recommendation also came as a result of a 2000 study requested by the European Commission that showed that only 30,000-60,000 metric tons of maize would be necessary to support the country in the case of a localized disaster.
[9] From congested roads to inefficiently rerouted trucks and overcrowded ports, there were a variety of transportation bottlenecks that delayed the arrival of food aid.
[15] Additionally, poor relationships with some donor countries made them slow to respond; many were suspicious of the IMF's involvement in depleting the strategic grain reserve, and others were wary of government corruption.
Malawi's policies for disaster management, called the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), do not take into consideration gender and health, only agriculture and environment.
[12] Most disaster and climate change management occurs on a national level, and not all policies and practices trickle down to local communities; district leaders in Nsanje and Salima did not know that the NAPA existed when asked in 2006.
[15] Malawi's agricultural policies are also problematic, the country's food supply is heavily reliant on maize and efforts to diversify crops have been unsuccessful.
[15] Therefore, food production levels are also largely affected by declining soil fertility and land shortages.d shortage in Malawi by changing the climate.
As rainfall patterns change and temperatures increase, the length of the productive growing season decreases and farmers must purchase more costly hybrid crops in order to obtain an adequate harvest.
UNICEF recognized that the outbreaks were prompted by poor hygiene and unsafe water sources compounded with the food crisis, which made people susceptible to disease.
[37] Starving people began to eat unsafe roots, maize cobs, sawdust, and boiled fruits and contracted food poisoning and other stomach illnesses.
[36] A report in The Lancet found that many families, even considerably wealthy ones, in Nsanje, a southern district in Malawi, were eating water-lily bulbs called nyika.
The Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy was a framework policy document intended to direct and inform budget decisions for the central government.
The policy aimed to: 1) increase food availability by extending irrigation systems and access to fertilizer and land, 2) strengthen the rural market, 3) create a number of health and dietary guidelines and services, and 4) establish and strengthen disaster management plans, the strategic grain reserve, and food production monitoring/predicting systems.
[42] The price of sex work has decreased from MK1000 to MK200, heightening the risk for women and girls that must engage in such behaviors at a higher rate to earn money.
[41] Other married men and women turned to infidelity to earn money and food, again leading to an increase in failed and abusive marriages.
[20] According to the World Food Programme, this devaluation combined with a 12.4% inflation that same month led to a heavy increase in the price of primary goods and services throughout the country.
[20] This low production of maize combined with lowered consumer purchasing power, meant that in 2012, around one million people required assistance to meet their basic food needs.
[4] The Famine and Early Warning System Network issued a statement claiming that a food emergency in Malawi could occur by July 2012 and have a duration of nine months.
[48] Indeed, the same study by the World Food Programme estimated that MWK 16.5 billion was lost in production output due to malnutrition.
In 2014, the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) estimated that 640,009 were food insecure compared to 1.46 million the previous year.
[52] These droughts were the worst in the past thirty five years with two consecutive failed rainy seasons with farmers having no resources to feed themselves and their families.
[55] There were many other factors that played into the severity of this crisis such as a lack of formal long-term safety nets in Malawi to account for climate variability's effects on farming.
[56] Indeed, it is believed that there is a need for policies to assist farmers in adopting strategies to mitigate climate change, such as sustainable farming systems and improved soil fertility.
According to the World Bank, populations in developing countries are more likely to suffer intense consequences of environmental disasters as loses are measured as a percentage of their GDP.
After the devastating floods created by the cyclone, Malawi's Agriculture Minister announced that the country may have lost 20% of the maize it would produce this season.
