Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday expressed satisfaction at the increased capacity of operators in Milange district, in the central province of Zambezia, to process and market locally produced maize.
Milange is on the border with Malawi, and traditionally Milange farmers have milled their maize in Malawi, as well as selling any surplus maize there.
This dependence has now been reduced with the appearance of flour mills in Milange. Partly as a result the circulation of the Malawian currency, the kwacha, in Milange has declined, with residents increasingly opting for Mozambique's own currency, the metical. This success is attributed to wise investment of the Local Initiative Development Fund, consisting of at least seven million meticais (about 280,000 US dollars) a year allocated to each district from the state budget.
Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the Milange District Consultative Council, Guebuza said "This means that you have known how to use the resources available as they ought to be used. If you continue like this, we shall feel that dependency on neighbouring countries will decrease still further".
Nonetheless, Guebuza admitted that it is still a major struggle to improve the use of the Local Initiatives Fund, since many of the beneficiaries of the fund face enormous difficulty in managing the money. The idea is that the money is not a grant but a loan, made to local entrepreneurs who can boost food production and provide jobs.
Guebuza's ends his visit to Zambezia today, and will immediately head north to begin a tour of Niassa province.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Female condom introduced in Malawi
Malawian women are now ready to embrace more power as they make sexual reproductive health decisions through the introduction of female condoms on the rather conservative Malawian market.
Sandra Mapemba, National FC Programming Coordinator for the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU), a department in the Ministry of Health, told Africa News prospects looked good for this new protective measure.
"We have been overwhelmed by demand, women asking us about female condoms. This indicates to us that people are ready," said Mapemba.
Asked why it has taken so long for female condoms to be introduced on the market, Mapemba, who works for the RHU but is paid by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as a sign of the United Nations agency's commitment to up-lifting the decision making capacity of women in sexual relationships, said her office had been working on quality assurance.
This, she said, is to ensure that when female condoms are widely available, service providers should have thorough knowledge, users fully aware of what is expected of them, and the nation's acceptance rates of the product sky-high.
So far this seems to have been achieved, as female condoms can now be found at K30.00 on the market. This entails a packet of two condoms
.
Why two condoms in a packet for women, and three for men? "Well, the difference is strategic," enthuses Mapemba."The male condom is prone to many mistakes; drunkards may wear them wrongly, or they may leak, or else they may burst in case of sex without proper fore-play hence three condoms in a packet. The female condom is good; it doesn't break or what. So, two is too good for the needed protection."
Sandra Mapemba, National FC Programming Coordinator for the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU), a department in the Ministry of Health, told Africa News prospects looked good for this new protective measure.
"We have been overwhelmed by demand, women asking us about female condoms. This indicates to us that people are ready," said Mapemba.
Asked why it has taken so long for female condoms to be introduced on the market, Mapemba, who works for the RHU but is paid by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as a sign of the United Nations agency's commitment to up-lifting the decision making capacity of women in sexual relationships, said her office had been working on quality assurance.
This, she said, is to ensure that when female condoms are widely available, service providers should have thorough knowledge, users fully aware of what is expected of them, and the nation's acceptance rates of the product sky-high.
So far this seems to have been achieved, as female condoms can now be found at K30.00 on the market. This entails a packet of two condoms
.
Why two condoms in a packet for women, and three for men? "Well, the difference is strategic," enthuses Mapemba."The male condom is prone to many mistakes; drunkards may wear them wrongly, or they may leak, or else they may burst in case of sex without proper fore-play hence three condoms in a packet. The female condom is good; it doesn't break or what. So, two is too good for the needed protection."
Malawi Sets Pace in Crop Production
With a population of 13 million and blessed with political stability and the largest part of the fresh-water resource Lake Malawi (the largest part of the lake is in Malawi) and an above-average rainfall coupled with hardworking people, Malawi has transformed itself from a basket case to a breadbasket.
Malawi has consistently turned over record crop harvests after it convinced its communal farmers that food production and sustainability are not a feat too difficult to achieve.
African countries, especially Namibia, can draw lessons from Malawi, which despite being one of the poorest countries on the continent is amongst the rare shining examples that do not rely on costly food imports to feed its population and in actual fact exports food.
Malawi, a former British colony and independent since 1964, prides itself as the “Warm Heart of Africa”. It has recorded phenomenal growth in food production surpluses since 2004, at a time when many other African countries are struggling given the volatile global economy that is being compounded by high food prices and escalating fuel.
Thanks largely to an ambitious agricultural programme, introduced by President Bingu Wa Mutharika known as Target Inputs Programme (TIP), Malawi produces enough food.
This programme began in 2000.
In terms of the programme, farmers were given a 50 kg package containing 10 kg urea, 10 kg fertilizers, maize seed and beans.
In 2004, the programme was reviewed and Government introduced a fertilizer subsidy programme (FSP).
In this initiative, a farmer buys a 50 kg bag of fertilizer at 910 Malawi
Kwacha equivalent to $6.5 and 3,500 Malawi Kwacha equivalent to N$175, with the aim to produce food for his/her household consumption.
Any surplus a farmer can sell to the State for export duties while at the same time farmers are encouraged to produce more and have readily available cash for other supplements.
Traditionally, Malawi has been self-sufficient in its staple food maize and during the 1980s exported substantial quantities to its drought-stricken neighbours.
Agriculture represents 38.6% of the GDP and counts for over 80% of the labour force, and represents about 80% of all exports.
Nearly 90% of the population engages in subsistence farming.
Smallholder farmers produce a variety of crops, including maize (corn), beans, rice cassava, tobacco groundnuts (peanuts) and coffee.
The agricultural sector contributes about 63.7% of total income for the rural population, 65% of the manufacturing sector’s raw materials, and approximately 87% of total employment.
Financial wealth is generally concentrated in the hands of a small elite.
Malawi’s manufacturing industries are situated around the city of Blantyre
Malawi’s economic reliance on the export of agricultural commodities renders it particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as declining terms of trade and drought. High transport costs, which can comprise over 30% of its total import bill, constitute a serious impediment to economic development and trade.
“But if we don’t take bold steps to accelerate our own agenda, Africa will continue to linger at the bottom of prosperity,” said Ken Lipenga, Minister of Economic Planning and Development during an interview with New Era.
Lipenga highlighted that despite the fact that Africa has a workforce of 720 million workers, 30 million square kilometres of arable land, large reservoirs of fresh water resources, over 2 000 species of freshwater fish, a favourable tropical climate and abundant mineral and natural deposits, an estimated 300 million Africans live below the poverty line and a further 200 million are chronically hungry. And at any given season, 30 million Africans need food assistance from outside the continent
However, recent government initiatives targeting improvements have caught the eye of African role players in the development of Africa.
A record maize harvest across the country during the 2007 rainy season resulted in an estimated surplus of over one million tons of maize, the staple food crop for the majority of Malawians.
The increase in production is mainly attributed to favourable weather conditions and greater uptake of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and hybrid seeds under the FSB.
The Malawian Government recently sold 400 000 tons of maize to Zimbabwe to help fill that country’s cereal gap.
The World Food Programme also procured large amounts of food within Malawi for use in its operations in the country and around southern Africa.
By the end of October 2007, WFP had procured 88,000 tons of different commodities valued at US$19 million in Malawi.
Food commodities procured from the country include maize, corn soy blend, pulses and maize meal.
But the success of Malawi’s food production stemmed from one thing, revealed Ben Botolo from the Economic and Planning Ministry, in that it’s rooted in ownership and a yearning for change: “We must take ownership of us – we can’t expect to be fed all the time.”
Malawi has consistently turned over record crop harvests after it convinced its communal farmers that food production and sustainability are not a feat too difficult to achieve.
African countries, especially Namibia, can draw lessons from Malawi, which despite being one of the poorest countries on the continent is amongst the rare shining examples that do not rely on costly food imports to feed its population and in actual fact exports food.
Malawi, a former British colony and independent since 1964, prides itself as the “Warm Heart of Africa”. It has recorded phenomenal growth in food production surpluses since 2004, at a time when many other African countries are struggling given the volatile global economy that is being compounded by high food prices and escalating fuel.
Thanks largely to an ambitious agricultural programme, introduced by President Bingu Wa Mutharika known as Target Inputs Programme (TIP), Malawi produces enough food.
This programme began in 2000.
In terms of the programme, farmers were given a 50 kg package containing 10 kg urea, 10 kg fertilizers, maize seed and beans.
In 2004, the programme was reviewed and Government introduced a fertilizer subsidy programme (FSP).
In this initiative, a farmer buys a 50 kg bag of fertilizer at 910 Malawi
Kwacha equivalent to $6.5 and 3,500 Malawi Kwacha equivalent to N$175, with the aim to produce food for his/her household consumption.
Any surplus a farmer can sell to the State for export duties while at the same time farmers are encouraged to produce more and have readily available cash for other supplements.
Traditionally, Malawi has been self-sufficient in its staple food maize and during the 1980s exported substantial quantities to its drought-stricken neighbours.
Agriculture represents 38.6% of the GDP and counts for over 80% of the labour force, and represents about 80% of all exports.
Nearly 90% of the population engages in subsistence farming.
Smallholder farmers produce a variety of crops, including maize (corn), beans, rice cassava, tobacco groundnuts (peanuts) and coffee.
The agricultural sector contributes about 63.7% of total income for the rural population, 65% of the manufacturing sector’s raw materials, and approximately 87% of total employment.
Financial wealth is generally concentrated in the hands of a small elite.
Malawi’s manufacturing industries are situated around the city of Blantyre
Malawi’s economic reliance on the export of agricultural commodities renders it particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as declining terms of trade and drought. High transport costs, which can comprise over 30% of its total import bill, constitute a serious impediment to economic development and trade.
“But if we don’t take bold steps to accelerate our own agenda, Africa will continue to linger at the bottom of prosperity,” said Ken Lipenga, Minister of Economic Planning and Development during an interview with New Era.
Lipenga highlighted that despite the fact that Africa has a workforce of 720 million workers, 30 million square kilometres of arable land, large reservoirs of fresh water resources, over 2 000 species of freshwater fish, a favourable tropical climate and abundant mineral and natural deposits, an estimated 300 million Africans live below the poverty line and a further 200 million are chronically hungry. And at any given season, 30 million Africans need food assistance from outside the continent
However, recent government initiatives targeting improvements have caught the eye of African role players in the development of Africa.
A record maize harvest across the country during the 2007 rainy season resulted in an estimated surplus of over one million tons of maize, the staple food crop for the majority of Malawians.
The increase in production is mainly attributed to favourable weather conditions and greater uptake of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and hybrid seeds under the FSB.
The Malawian Government recently sold 400 000 tons of maize to Zimbabwe to help fill that country’s cereal gap.
The World Food Programme also procured large amounts of food within Malawi for use in its operations in the country and around southern Africa.
By the end of October 2007, WFP had procured 88,000 tons of different commodities valued at US$19 million in Malawi.
Food commodities procured from the country include maize, corn soy blend, pulses and maize meal.
But the success of Malawi’s food production stemmed from one thing, revealed Ben Botolo from the Economic and Planning Ministry, in that it’s rooted in ownership and a yearning for change: “We must take ownership of us – we can’t expect to be fed all the time.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
