By Linda Kwanjana

Government social and political commentator Raymond Likambale has hailed President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera led Government for food distribution during this critical time of the season.

Likambale said this will help citizens who are suffering from hunger following cyclone devastation.

Likambale said there are more people affected by hunger than the estimated 4 million.

“Let the Government finds additional resources and reach out to all those affected, ” he said.

Likambale appealed to the Government to distribute maize to only those in need of such assistance.

Chakwera, through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) in collaboration with various development and humanitarian partners, started providing food assistance in November this year.

The program is under the 2023-24 Malawi Vunerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) Lean Season Food Insecurity Response Programme and targets more than 4.4 million Malawians in all the 28 districts and four cities of the country.

Districts for the initial delivery include Machinga, Mulanje, Mwanza, Neno, Nkhotakota and Ntcheu Districts. President Chakwera has been speaking that no one will die of hunger in Malawi.

An estimated 4.4 million Malawians are likely to face hunger in the 2023/24 consumption period, representing 22 percent of the country’s projected population of 19.6 million. Malawi Government committed K167.55 billion for support mechanisms.

The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) annual food security assessment results shows that the current projection represents a 15 percent increase compared to the previous consumption period when 3.9 million people faced hunger.

The report came at a time when there is maize scarcity on the market which has led some traders to sell a 50 kilogramme bag of the staple grain at prices ranging from K30 000 to K40 000.

Reads Mvac’s Report: “In order to protect livelihoods, the vulnerable population will require humanitarian food assistance that has been estimated at 219,023 metric tonnes [MT] of maize with an estimated cash value of K167.55 billion.

“The food assistance will be required for a period ranging from two to six months.”

Out of the estimated food insecure population, 470 000 are from the four cities of Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe and Mzuzu while 3.9 million are from rural areas across the country.