Malawi president seeks international backing for 'green belt'

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika said Thursday he will seek international investment for his ambitious "green belt" irrigation project to boost food production and combat hunger.

"I want the world to help in establishing the green belt through investment for Malawi to have food all the time," Mutharika told reporters before leaving for the UN General Assembly.

Mutharika last month announced that his impoverished nation was to begin irrigation farming using water from Lake Malawi and the country's rivers to boost food production.

The green belt would be established along Lake Malawi, which straddles a third of the country.

Mutharika gave no figures for the required investment, but in remarks broadcast on state radio, he said international firms had expressed interest in the project.

Despite the huge fresh-water supply from Lake Malawi, Africa's third-largest, agricultural experts say only two percent of land is irrigated and most farming is small scale and dependent on rain.

Sixty percent of Malawi's 13 million citizens live below the poverty line. The country met its food needs for the first time in seven years in 2006 with a harvest of 2.2 million tonnes of maize, the country's staple.

Famine threatened up to five million people in 2005 following drought, forcing the Mutharika administration to spend more than 100 million dollars (71.7 million euros) to import over 400,000 tonnes of food.