Blantyre, January 20: The Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) has commended Government for acknowledging with speed the grave situation caused by floods in many parts of the country.
CISANET National Director Tamani Nkhono-Mvula noted on Monday that the move has not only raised awareness about the crisis but also triggered swift responses from donors and the international community.
While appreciating government’s overall support towards the victims, Nkhono-Mvula suggested the need to come up with measures that could help avert ‘the looming hunger crisis’ in the affected areas as people have lost the means to produce.
“We understand that the immediate concern to us all is to save the lives that are in danger, by providing them with food, shelter and medicines.
“But CISANET has learnt with great shock at the level of devastation that has already taken place especially in people’s gardens at this critical stage in the agriculture production cycle raising fears of hunger in most of the affected households,” bemoaned Nkhono-Mvula.
Nkhono-Mvula also bemoaned the heavy loss the floods have caused to the agricultural sector. He cited the massive investment in fertilizers and seeds under the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) especially in the affected areas in the Southern Region.
“The disaster that has befallen us should therefore be an opportunity for us to draw lessons on how we can rethink investment into the agriculture sector and how we can effectively plan ahead as well as allocating resources to different departments and subsectors within agriculture and also come up with contingency measures to avert similar crisis in future,” said Nkhono-Mvula.
He then suggested the need to replant early maturing maize varieties that could also take advantage of the residual moisture, water harvesting structures and irrigation to grow as well as the withdraw of the long term seed varieties from the market.
Nkhono-Mvula has since pledged CISANET’s support towards government’s efforts to alleviate the suffering most rural communities are experiencing as a result of the floods.
