MALAWI: Kassim Kalukwete, "I do not have maize at home"

Photo: Joseph Kayira/IRIN

Kassim Kalukwete says families in his village do not have enough food

LILONGWE, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Kassim Kalukwete, a subsistence farmer in his 60s in the lakeshore district of Mangochi in southern Malawi said his family and many others in his village, Kungumbe, do not have food.

The Malawian government said it had harvested a bumper crop in 2008, but there are signs that many people are already grappling with hunger.

The government has maintained there is enough maize in the outlets of the state grain marketer, Agriculture Marketing and Development Corporation (ADMARC).

“I have two hectares of land on which I mostly plant maize. Last year I did not benefit from the fertiliser subsidy because my name was missing on the list of beneficiaries. In fact very few people had the opportunity to receive the coupons to buy subsidised fertilisers and seed.

“That has affected me very much this year. As I am talking now I literally do not have maize at home. I went to check if there was maize at ADMARC but I found nothing.

“Vendors are selling maize at exorbitant prices and not many of us can afford to buy the commodity at such prices. Government officials keep saying there is maize in ADMARC depots but the truth is that there is nothing.

“This is only January and we are already struggling. Most families here face hunger from February to the end of March. By March they will have started eating fresh maize. If you go around, you will notice that people are surviving on mangoes and maize husks if they are lucky.

“All I am praying for is that government should transport maize from districts where people harvested enough maize to areas where there is shortage of maize.

“Something must be done to make sure that ADMARC depots have enough maize. Vendors are killing us. They have the maize but they will not negotiate the prices. Government banned them but they are back on the market doing what they were barred to do.

“We are a bit lucky in my area because a Catholic priest is assisting us. He buys maize and sells it to us at a reduced price. I wish many including government, were doing that to assist millions who are hungry.

“I also fear that even after the harvest most of us will still have little or no maize at all because this year again I did not benefit from the fertiliser subsidy [programme run by the Malawian government, which targets vulnerable farmers].

“They are actually using the same old list of beneficiaries [on the fertiliser subsidy programme] but we know that some of the beneficiaries might have moved to other areas or died. I am also poor just like the rest of the beneficiaries. What surprises us is that some of the people who benefit are better off than those of us who are missing on the list.

“From next year government must seriously review the subsidy programme because it has been abused. If government wants to fight hunger from the household level, there has to be a mechanism to add the list of beneficiaries. Otherwise most of us will remain in this vicious circle of hunger year in year out!"
 
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