The country’s social monitoring body, Center For Social Concern (CFSC) has called on Malawi government to vigorously have serious reforms on agricultural sector by putting in place policies that might initiate the general public’s food diversification intake in order to improve food security.
The call comes amid scarcity and soaring of maize, the country’s staple food despite authorities assuring the public that the nation has enough stocks for maize that no one will die of hunger.
The past three weeks most ADMARC deports have had no enough maize which in some areas the maize is sold at night particularly to vendors who later resorting selling the commodity at an average of MK12,000 per bag of 50kilogram which average of Malawians are unable to buy.
In a press statement released on over the weekend which is available to The Maravi Post, CFSC has emphasized the need to the citizens to seriously diversifying food intake in a bid to beat the hunger situation which still tormenting the country year in year out.
CFSC noted further that analysis of the monthly maize prices trends versus the prices of total food basket over this six year period indicates that the general trend pattern discovered by the maize prices influenced the trends of the total food basket. The maize price increases remained exceptionally modest between the months of May and October and increased considerably high from the month of November of previous year to February in the following year; and so did the total food basket. This confirms that maize has huge influence in the nation’s food inflation patterns.
“Less than a month into the New Year, memories of 2015 are still fresh in the minds of many Malawians.However, most of the poor and average, retain memories that are scarred due to the pain and misery which the year has exposed them to. The rise in the cost of living was unprecedented and there was a general decline in people’s living conditions.
‘To some, when they try to recall how they survived and made into the year 2016, they only look up into the heavens and sing praises for the miracle. Apart from notable challenges such as lack of direct budgetary support, soaring public debt and the cash gate aftermaths, the floods that hit the country also played a central role in aggravating the situation.
“With 2,833,212 people displaced and the country reeling on a food deficit of 27.7 % as it was reported by Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC), the country witnessed one of its worst disasters in history. This led to low maize supply and resultant spiral of maize prices. Analysis of maize price trends during the last six years, 2015 inclusive, from the cities of Lilongwe, Zomba, Mzuzu and Blantyre through the CfSC’s basic needs basket data has revealed that the just ended year recorded the highest maize prices during the last six years. From 2010 to 2015, the maize prices have averaged MK4, 082 per 50 Kg bag.
“Before 2015, the highest prices of maize were recorded in 2013 at an average of MK 6, 130 per 50Kg bag prior to retreating to MK 5, 124 per bag in 2014, which represented annual percent price decline of 16.4 %.Into the year 2015, the prices spiked to MK6, 724 per 50 Kg bag, signifying an annual percent increase of 32.2 %. The average prices per 50 kg bag in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 were MK 1, 781, MK 1, 685 and MK 3, 048 respectively”, reads in part the statement signed by Fr. Jose Kuppens, CFSC Executive Director.
While these findings would not be strange in a country where maize accounts for over half (54%) of daily caloric intake of households, (FAO, 2009), they are crucial in guiding the nation’s food production and storage strategies since we have a yearly predictable pattern of maize price trends which indirectly give an image of maize availability trends along the year.
However, a closer look into the maize prices and overall cost of living trends from the cities in 2015 shows that in January, from an average of MK 5002 per 50 Kg bag, the prices shot up to MK 6, 671 per 50 kg bag by April before easing off in May and June at an average of MK 6, 355. Since July at MK6, 428, the prices steadily increased during each month such that by December they had peaked at MK 8511, which was 2.9% above the November prices.
In particular, the price in Blantyre was as high as MK 9000 per 50kg bag in December. Thus, from January to December, 2015 an average bag of 50 Kg had risen by 70 %, in stark contrast to 2014 when the prices declined by 42 % during the same period, from MK 7, 756 in January to MK 4, 476 in December, 2014. In terms of total basic food basket required by a family of six in 2015 to live a decent life, it went up by 3.5 %, from MK 81,476 in January to MK 84,361 in December which was a slight rise by 0.4 % from November. In 2014, the food basket declined by 8.4 % in December from January.
“Consequently, the overall cost of living (food and non food items) jumped from MK134, 718 in January, 2015 to MK 141, 952 in December 2015, representing 5.4 % increase, a complete departure from 2014 when the overall cost of living went down by 4 percent by December in the cities. Considering the current economic climate characterized by stagnating incomes, high levels of unemployment and rising job insecurity for many workers, the sustained rise in cost of living in 2015 partly due to maize shortage and rising maize prices has plunged more Malawians into poverty as they couldn’t afford their basic needs.
“The recent report by OXFAM highlighting growing inequalities in the country, where the richest 10 percent consumed 34 times more than the bottom 10 percent as of 2011, and 50 percent of the population currently living in poverty vividly explains the dire conditions Malawians are grappling with. One immediate outcome of this poverty is the wide spread cases of malnutrition among children where 5 out of every 10 children are stunted and 59.9 percent of the adult population in Malawi suffered from stunting as children, leading to annual loss of 10.3% of GDP as noted by Government of Malawi in 2015”, noted CFSC report.
Therefore, CFSC is appealing to the government by making ensure that
it honors its pledge that no Malawian will die of hunger and ensure consistent maize supply at affordable prices and also that ADMARC staff responsible for selling the grain should exercise a high sense of integrity by resisting any form of corruption so that the poorest and most vulnerable benefit fully from the affordable grain.
“It is also high time Malawians embraced other staple food crops such as rice, cassava, millet, sorghum etc. and stop defining household food security in terms of maize only as it is clear that sufficient maize production is tricky in the face of climate change. It is also crucial that the sweeping reforms underway in government should be fully implemented in the agricultural sector so that the sector is modernized and well positioned to serve food needs of the country’s rapidly growing population.
“Lastly, we should fully make use of our enormous water bodies by engaging in serious irrigation farming all year round, and design and implement food storage systems that will safeguard the harvest for use during lean periods and bad years”, appeals CFSC.
