MULANJE-(MaraviPost)-Dry spell has hit some parts of Mulanje District, destroying about 5,000 hectares of maize and leaving lives of 34,000 farming families affected.
Mulanje District Agricultural Development Officer (DADO), Enford Kanyimbo on Tuesday said two of the five Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) in the district.
He singled out Kamwendo and Thuchila EPAs as the most greatly affected with the dry spell.
“These two EPAs have experienced dry spell to the extent that in some parts they have not received any rain in the last 60 days.
“The situation has destroyed 63 percent of the crops to the point that it has withered completely,” the DADO disclosed.
Kanyimbo observed that even though the food situation in the district was better this year compared to last year, there was need to support communities with production of cassava and sweet potatoes.
“However, with the dry spells it might worsen in future because even as of now over 25 thousand farming families are without food in the district when last year, during the same time, we had almost 60 thousand families without food,” he said.
Kanyimbo urged all stakeholders to intervene with drought tolerant crops like cassava and sweet potatoes to help the affected farmers.