MALAWI: Reactions as Malawi announces plans to sell or donate surplus maize to needy neighbours

Many Malawians do not agree with President Bingu wa Mutharika's decision to donate or sell the country's surplus maize to neighbouring countries facing a food crisis. Malawi will sell its surplus maize or donate it to needy neighbours, the country's president Bingu wa Mutharika has announced. Malawi is enjoying its second surplus harvest in a row, with a crop of 3.4 million tonnes, 1.3 million more than the national requirement. "I am happy that there is plenty of maize this year. I would like the government to consider giving it to the needy and the orphans in the country rather than donate it elsewhere," said Maggie Gabiyele, who lives in Chikwawa district. Yet the Malawi political opposition has questioned plans to donate food aid to neighbours when two of the country's own districts are suffering from shortages after their output was destroyed by floods. Officials have said they have started distributing food to these regions but communities say they see little evidence of that. Byson Chimphamba who works as a taxi-driver in Blantyre, Malawi's commercial capital, wants the government to look inward before trying to help others. "This is a regrettable move. If you go round across Malawi, you will notice that there are some places where there is need for maize. For example, in Thyolo district where the president comes from, people do not have adequate maize. As such, if the maize is donated to other countries, then it is the people of Malawi who will suffer," said Chimphamba. Andrew Makunganya, a vendor, recalls the drought that devastated Malawi in 2005. "I am not for the idea of donating the maize to other countries because it is not so long ago when the same thing happened that the people of Malawi experienced an acute hunger crisis. The government of that time had already sold almost all the maize in its grain reserves," he said. Mutharika said his government, which has already sold 400,000 tonnes of the staple grain to Zimbabwe, would donate 10,000 tonnes of maize to Lesotho and Swaziland. Both countries have declared a food crisis after poor maize harvests blamed on a prolonged dry spell and high temperatures. United Nations (U.N.) agencies estimate that 400,000 people in Lesotho and another 400,000 in Swaziland are in need of food aid. Malawi's bumper harvest is partly attributed to a government policy to reintroduce input subsidies scrapped in 1996. The good maize harvests have helped tame inflation in Malawi. According to the National Statistical Office, inflation fell to single digits for the first time in four years in January and has continued to ease during the course of 2007.

ITN Source | August 31, 2007

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