Landlocked Malawi, which is ranked 153 out of 169 countries in the 2010 UNDP Human Development Report, is a low-income country with a population of 14.4 million (National Statistical Office 2010).
Poverty is both widespread and severe with 40% of the population living on less than US $1 per day (2010 Government of Malawi MDG Report). According to UNDP Malawi, over 85 percent of the people live in rural areas. Many have poor access to basic health and education services.
Landholdings are small, particularly in the densely populated south, leading to encroachment on marginal lands and increased erosion. These conditions, combined with the high incidence of HIV/AIDS currently estimated at 12 per cent (UNAIDS Epidemiological Fact Sheet on HIV and AIDS, 2008), make the poor highly vulnerable to impact of natural disasters and food insecurity.
However, the Government of Malawi’s fertilizer subsidy has contributed to surplus cereal harvests in the last three years. The total cereal harvest in 2010 was estimated at almost 3.5 million metric tonnes, resulting in a surplus of more than 800,000 tonnes. These surpluses have allowed WFP to procure more than 100,000 tonnes of food during the past three years in Malawi for use in its operations in-country and elsewhere in southern Africa.
RSS Feeds
