31 July 2005
Malawi has banned all exports of Malawi's staple maize crop and fertilizer in a bid to avert famine.
President Bingu wa Mutharika also urged Malawians to contribute at least 10 percent of their earnings to a fund to help feed the needy.
Malawi plans to import 300,000 tonnes of maize worth 50 million dollars from South Africa to starve off famine, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said.
This would be one of the largest imports ever of the staple.
Gondwe said the funds for the importation will come from the new budget, but warned that Malawi was not the only country in the region eyeing South Africa's surplus stocks.
"We are in competition with a number of countries for the surplus maize in South Africa," Gondwe said, naming Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe as competitors following a crippling drought that has hit the region.
The drought reduced the country's national maize output by 24 percent.
Malawi requires two million tonnes every year to feed its 11 million-strong population, according to government officials.
The World Bank, the IMF and several donor countries may financially support the import of maize. The IMF and other Western donors have since 2002 been withholding more than 75 million dollars in support over concerns about overspending by Malawi.
US food aid condemned
While the entire region faces food shortages this year a new report has condemned US food aid as inefficient, wasteful and designed in most cases to benefit domestic constituencies, particularly US-based agribusiness, shipping companies and some non-governmental organisations.
The report released earlier this month by the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) calls for a major overhaul of food aid programmes, including untying the assistance from US-origin and shipping requirements, as well as the practice of monetisation, providing food to NGOs or local governments for sale so that the proceeds can be used for aid work or other purposes.
It also calls on Washington to do more to encourage local food production, particularly in Africa, to ensure long-term food security by investing more in agriculture, establishing a system of emergency food reserves, and encouraging multilateral agencies, in consultation with recipient countries, to adopt uniform rules on food aid.
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