According to government figures, about 4 million people in Malawi are facing severe food insecurity – a situation, it says, that could persist until March 2026.
Malawi’s trade ministry said on Thursday that the south-eastern African country – one of the world’s poorest – has started enforcing a maize export ban to protect reserves of the key grain.
Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika declared a state of disaster in late October, assuring the country that no citizens would die of hunger under his watch.
Mutharika, who was sworn in as president just weeks ago, appealed to the international community to invest in Malawi, saying it needed partnerships, not handouts.
Mutharika said at his inauguration ceremony, “Our country is in crisis,” and that “there is no food.”
“We will fix this country,” the 85-year-old man said. “I do not promise you milk and honey, but hard work.”
Poverty deepens hunger crisis in Malawi
About 75% of Malawians live below the World Bank’s poverty line of $3 a day. According to the Bank’s estimates, about half the population does not get the minimum calories required for adequate nutrition.
ECAMA President Bertha Bangara-Chikadza says Malawi has seen perennial food crises, but this year the hunger crisis is more severe.
“They [families] Even the nutrition is cut down and the quality of the food they are taking is also not good. Some families are even selling some of their property to survive,” Bangara-Chikadza told DW.
Malawi’s worst crisis was recorded in 2002. This affected over 75% of the population and over 500 people either died or died from hunger-related diseases.
a persistent problem with no solution
“In the last 10 years…there have been probably 5 or 6 disasters [have] Has been declared,” agricultural policy expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula told DW.
Bangara-Chikadza, who is also an economics lecturer at the University of Malawi, says the reasons for the persistent problem vary.
He told DW that Malawi’s heavy reliance on maize production and rain-fed agriculture makes the country vulnerable to drought and other natural disasters.
Another cause of the food crisis is artificial, Bangara-Chikadza said, adding that farmers export their produce to neighboring countries where purchasing prices are higher.
“We have also seen this year that some Malawians who had maize were exporting it out of the country because the National Food Reserve Agency was not buying at competitive prices,” Bangara-Chikadza said.
meanwhile, World Food Program (WFP)has blamed Malawi’s food crisis on climate-related shocks – including dry periods and cyclones.
Oliver Kirui, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), says Malawi’s pattern of persistent food shortages is a structural challenge that requires deliberate solutions.
“Despite having large land holdings – an estimated 4 to 5 million hectares of arable land – there is low irrigation coverage, limited access to inputs and weak markets that keep yields very low and diets quite diverse,” he told DW.
Where are the solutions?
With the highest global per capita consumption of maize, Malawi has considered the crop a “high value” crop.
Joachim de Weerdt, head of IFPRI’s Malawi country office, says that when there is a shortage of food, it increases the situation of hunger.
“To prevent these more fundamental things from happening, serious investments will have to be made in a number of things,” De Weerdt told DW.
“In terms of making sure that maize is not a very high-value crop. If you grow maize on half a hectare of land, it might give you calories, but it doesn’t generate a lot of income, so moving towards more high-value crops is the way to go.”
Kirui suggested diversifying Malawi’s food production system to include irrigation systems that can support food production during natural events such as drought.
Experts like Dr. Tamani Nkhono-Mvula are also concerned that despite the persistent nature of the crisis, these solutions are difficult to implement.
“The problem is to ensure that resources are available because every year whenever a disaster occurs, the government seems to be oblivious,” he said.
An old problem for the new government
“To be fair to the government, they have come in and inherited the problem,” De Weerdt said.
In addition to enforcing a maize export ban under a 2018 law, the Malawi government said it is seeking assistance through maize imports from neighboring Zambia to provide short-term relief for families who cannot afford higher food prices.
It also called for international aid to deal with the imminent threat – however, some experts have suggested that the administration should invest in sustainable food systems to eliminate the problem.
“External support is important [a] “There is this kind of crisis, but it is not sustainable as a long-term strategy,” Kirui told DW.
“So while humanitarian aid can help close the food gap, Malawi needs to invest more in predictable national safety nets.”
Edited by: Keith Walker