President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has assured Malawians of the country’s food situation recovery through different measures his administration is implementing to improve food production in the country.
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Speaking in Parliament on Friday during the State of Nation Address (SONA), Chakwera highlighted some strategies government is undertaking to meet minimum national maize requirement that would deal with hunger at household level across the country.
“The 2023 Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report estimated that 4.4 million people would be unable to meet their annual food requirements. With this estimation the number of people requiring food support has increased by 15 percent from 3.9 million in 2022.
“In response to this, my administration has embarked on the lean season response for all affected people in all districts by giving each of the affected household a 50-kilogram bag of maize every month for two months,” said Chakwera.
In collaboration with the Malawi Defence Force and Malawi Prison Service, government has coordinated the production of 373 metric tons of maize for restocking the strategic grain reserves and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) cultivated 103 hectares of maize, among other initiatives to ending hunger.
Chakwera added that his administration made a commitment to redesign Agricultural Input Programme (AIP) to target those who are able to achieve food security.
1.5 million farmers, with land holding sizes from 0.25 hectares to two hectares, were targeted to benefit from the AIP in the 2023/2024 growing season with the expectation that they will produce 1,125,000 metric tons thereby contributing to over 32 percent of national food grain requirement.
Government, under Pillar One of the Malawi 2063, demands mechanisation of the agriculture sector by facilitating establishment of private sector tractor hiring association for farmers to hire at any time.
