Blantyre, Malawi, March 9 (Raphael Tenthani/MaraviPost) _ Malawi is looking for at least US $16m to help farmers replant food crops after several thousands of hectares of crop fields were washed away by devastating floods that affected over half of the southern African country, a senior government official has disclosed.
“The figure of the damage is huge; we are likely going to lose over 100,000 metric tonnes of crop yields from the floods,” said Agriculture and Food Security Minister Allan Chiyembekeza.
Chiyembekeza said government wants to use the money to distribute seed for early maturing food crop and other farm inputs like fertiliser to save the country from a food crisis.
Malawi and neighbouring Mozambique were hit by devastating foods from mid January at the peak of the region’s rainy season. At least 176 people were killed in Malawi during the flooding with over 200 others still unaccounted for. Over 230,000 people were displaced during the flooding and are currently living in crammed conditions in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps across the country.
President Peter Mutharika declared 16 of the country’s 28 districts ‘disaster areas’ and appealed for international assistance.
Paul Chiunguzeni, Secretary for Disaster Management Affairs, said while local and international donors have reacted positively there was still need for more assistance.
“Since rains continue to come every day we are having more and more displaced people,” he said.
Because of the crammed conditions in the IDP camps, there are fears of an outbreak of diarrheal diseases. Already, according to the Belgian medical charity Medicines Sans Frontiers, two people have been confirmed dead from cholera with at least 60 others infected by the disease.
The cholera situation in neighbouring Mozambique is much worse with nearly 40 people killed by the disease which also affected about 3,500 others, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Chiyembekeza, the Malawi Agriculture and Food Security Minister, said government will use the US $16m to distribute seed and other farm inputs in the affected areas.
“The rainy season is still here and we hope if farmers can replant we will be able to salvage the situation,” he said.
Malawi requires at least 2.5 million metric tonnes of the staple food maize to feed its population of 15 million people. Although maize the national staple food in other parts, especially in the north of the country, people also survive of rice and cassava.
Recently, heavy flooding has also been reported in Malawi’s northern neighbour, Tanzania.-maravipost
