Malawi, until recently a net importer of food, is to start irrigation farming to help boost food production and end hunger, President Bingu wa Mutharika said on Tuesday.
The government will establish a green belt along its giant lake Malawi, which straddles one third of the country, Mutharika told reporters before departing for Norway to attend a conference on a green African revolution.
"Where there is a river, we will try to start irrigation. We should grow everything so that we have food all the time," he said in remarks quoted on state radio.
"God gave us water. We have a lot of rivers and lakes. We are going into irrigation farming in a big way."
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 remains on a small scale and dependent on rain.
At the Norway conference, Mutharika said he would be seeking international investment to boost Malawi food production in order "to have food not only for ourselves, but the world.
"We don't eat much rice but we are going to produce a lot of rice to feed the rest of the world."
Mutharika said his poor nation will "no longer beg food, especially maize, from outside."
"For the past three years, Malawians agreed not to beg maize. We can beg other things, but not maize," Mutharika said in an apparent reference to the government's 50-million-dollar (35-million euro) programme of subsidised fertiliser which enabled peasant farmers to access cheap fertiliser.
Sixty percent of Malawi's 13 million citizens who live below the poverty line met their food needs for the first time in seven years in 2006 with a harvest of 2.2 million tonnes of maize.
Famine threatened up to five million people in 2005 following drought, and the Mutharika administration, just one year in office, spent more than 100 million dollars to import more than 400,000 tonnes of food to avert hunger.
Up to 85 percent of farming in Malawi is done by small-holder farmers who grow mainly maize, the country's staple.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Drugs 'slash' Malawi Aids deaths
Distributing anti-retroviral drugs in Malawi has led to a huge fall in Aids-related deaths, an official says.
Mary Shawa told the Reuters news agency that 67% of those taking the ARV drugs are still alive.
Malawi is among the countries worst affected by Aids, with about 7% of the 13m population affected.
The World Health Organization estimates that 35% of those infected with HIV in Malawi are now taking ARV drugs, which were rolled out in 2004.
Aids is the leading cause of death for adult Malawians, according to Reuters.
As of March this year, the government had put 159,111 people on ARVs and 106,547 of those are still alive, the agency says.
"This represents a 67% survival rate," according to Ms Shawa.
"But we still need to do more, because those who did not make it may have died because they started the treatment late or did not have access to proper nutrition."
In January, the government announced that all civil servants with HIV would be given a pay rise to help them buy the food needed to remain strong and fight off disease.
Mary Shawa told the Reuters news agency that 67% of those taking the ARV drugs are still alive.
Malawi is among the countries worst affected by Aids, with about 7% of the 13m population affected.
The World Health Organization estimates that 35% of those infected with HIV in Malawi are now taking ARV drugs, which were rolled out in 2004.
Aids is the leading cause of death for adult Malawians, according to Reuters.
As of March this year, the government had put 159,111 people on ARVs and 106,547 of those are still alive, the agency says.
"This represents a 67% survival rate," according to Ms Shawa.
"But we still need to do more, because those who did not make it may have died because they started the treatment late or did not have access to proper nutrition."
In January, the government announced that all civil servants with HIV would be given a pay rise to help them buy the food needed to remain strong and fight off disease.
Free AIDS drugs reduce Malawi death rates
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Greater access to free medicine has helped slash AIDS-related deaths in Malawi by 75 percent in the last four years, a senior government official said on Monday.
HIV/AIDS has been blamed for 59 percent of deaths among those aged between 15 to 59 years in the southern African country, which has a population of 13 million.
But Malawi has made progress since 2004, when it started to offer free antiretroviral therapy -- drugs that help treat immunodeficiency virus -- to thousands of patients.
"I am happy that AIDS related deaths have decreased by over 75 percent over the last four years in comparison with the AIDS related deaths we had in 2003-2004 because of increased free treatment," said Mary Shawa, Malawi's principle secretary for
HIV & AIDS.
Malawi has had about 800,000 AIDS related deaths since 1985, when the first case was reported. As of March this year, the government has put 159,111 people on free antiretroviral drugs and 106,547 of those are still alive.
"This represents a 67 percent survival rate. But we still need to do more, because those who did not make it may have died because they started the treatment late or did not have access to proper nutrition," said Shawa.
HIV/AIDS has been blamed for 59 percent of deaths among those aged between 15 to 59 years in the southern African country, which has a population of 13 million.
But Malawi has made progress since 2004, when it started to offer free antiretroviral therapy -- drugs that help treat immunodeficiency virus -- to thousands of patients.
"I am happy that AIDS related deaths have decreased by over 75 percent over the last four years in comparison with the AIDS related deaths we had in 2003-2004 because of increased free treatment," said Mary Shawa, Malawi's principle secretary for
HIV & AIDS.
Malawi has had about 800,000 AIDS related deaths since 1985, when the first case was reported. As of March this year, the government has put 159,111 people on free antiretroviral drugs and 106,547 of those are still alive.
"This represents a 67 percent survival rate. But we still need to do more, because those who did not make it may have died because they started the treatment late or did not have access to proper nutrition," said Shawa.
Malawi: AIDS Deaths Drop by 75%
Greater access to free medicine has helped reduce AIDS-related deaths in Malawi by 75 percent in the past four years, Mary Shawa, the country's principal secretary for H.I.V. and AIDS, said Monday. H.I.V. and AIDS have been blamed for 59 percent of deaths there among people 15 to 59 years old. As of March this year, the government had put 159,111 people on free antiretroviral drugs, and 106,547 of them were still alive.
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