Malawi food prices begin to bite

The Scottish Government has announced that about £2.26m is to be spent this year on 29 aid projects for Malawi.

Oxfam Scotland says money is urgently needed in the impoverished country to assist the families and communities who it says need help to survive. The charity's Malcolm Fleming, who is visiting Malawi, explains just how hard life is for many who live there.

Back in May I wrote an article for the BBC about the hope that Malawi was bucking the trend of global food prices rises.

That hope was based on bumper harvests some subsistence famers were achieving because the Malawian government had invested in helping them, mainly through a fertiliser subsidy scheme which meant millions of subsistence famers who could not normally afford fertiliser had been able to, and harvests had increased as a result.

I've just revisited Malawi, and although it is clear that the Malawian government absolutely did the correct thing in implementing the fertiliser subsidy (things could be much worse if they hadn't), rising food prices are cancelling out the benefits for some people, and the poorest households are already down to one meal a day, with estimates that prices will rise further still.

Take 56-year-old grandmother Lucy Maluwa for instance. She is clearly built of strong stuff. She smiles and chats and jokes, but it doesn't take many questions to ascertain the challenges and heartache she has faced, or the huge challenge she currently faces to feed her household.


The rains started erratically and then stopped again, it doesn't make for a good harvest
Lucy Maluwa

Lucy has had six children, but like many Malawian women, lost a child at birth, and she is far from unique to have lost another daughter to Aids. To compound these losses, her husband was killed in a car accident in 1992.

At an age when she might hope to be able to start taking things easier Lucy is instead the head of a household of 10 people, herself and nine orphans, many of whom are her grandchildren or extended family.

She clearly has a big heart, and speaks proudly of how her eldest grandson has got a place at secondary school, yet caring for nine children aged from five to 16 would strain most people.

However, the biggest challenge as food prices rise in countries around the world, and here in Malawi, is feeding everyone.

"I am really finding it tough to buy food," she says. "Prices have gone up. This year they are more than double last year. It is mostly because of changes in the climate. The rains started erratically and then stopped again. It doesn't make for a good harvest."

Lucy and her family are already down to one meal a day, and its not yet the traditional "lean season". They have their meal at 2pm or 3pm.

"You could call it a late lunch or an early supper," Lucy says with a wry smile. Lucy does piecework - helping farm other people's land, to earn income.

Difficult times

She makes 250 Malawian Kwacha a day, about £1, and worries that maize prices will go up even further making putting food on the table even more difficult. Unfortunately the indications are that she will be right.

Oxfam has helped fund the local Community-based Childcare Centre, a sort of nursery school, where Lucy's youngest granddaughter, Lonjezo, who is five-years-old goes.

She gets fed at the centre, but despite that Lucy is worried that she is not growing properly because she is undernourished.

It is clear that Lucy and women like her are doing their utmost to help ends meet, and to give their children a future. In these difficult times we need to be doing more to help them cope.

So it is clear that for families like Lucy Maluwa's, rising prices are having a major effort, and you wonder how they will cope if the prices rise further still.

But what is causing the prices to rise, and what can be done? Well the picture is complex, but it is clear that a mix of factors are pushing up prices.

Malawi still has a food surplus, but an increasing number of Malawians are struggling to feed their families.

Increasing prices both globally and regionally are having an impact, and some traders are said to be holding back supplies in the belief that prices will rise further still.

Climate change

One other factor that came through very clear on my recent visit, was that of climate change.

It was the consistent message I heard from the different villages and families I visited. As every farmer knows, climate is key. Without the right conditions you cannot grow your crops and get a decent harvest.

But erratic rains, and spells of drought have reduced harvests in several areas this year, including parts of Chiradzulu district that I visited.

Even when the rains came sometimes they were too heavy - one woman I met talked about how her she paid for fertilizer only for it to be washed away.

How to respond? We need to assist the families and communities who need our help now to survive.

We also need to ensure food prices are not driven up higher still.

Among several measures that means not insisting that land is turned over from food to biofuels, mitigating our effect on climate change by reducing our carbon footprint (because if we don't it's families like Lucy's which suffer), and ensuring poor countries and poor communities have funds to help them adapt to changing climate conditions.

For the families I met in Malawi these changes can't come fast enough.