Food Shortage in Malawi: Causes, Evaluation and Recommendations

Running head: DEVELOPMENTS PROBLEM, POLICIES AND PROGRAM
Developments problem, policies and program
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1DEVELOPMENTS PROBLEM, POLICIES AND PROGRAM
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion/ Body.............................................................................................................................2
The analysis of the reasons behind food shortage in Malawi......................................................2
The Evaluation.............................................................................................................................5
The Recommendation and Conclusion............................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................9

2DEVELOPMENTS PROBLEM, POLICIES AND PROGRAM
Introduction
Malawi is one of the least developed countries across the world and according to the Human
resource development index 2010, it is ranked 170 out of 187 countries across the world.
Chronic food insecurity along with chronic poverty is two factors that are closely related to
Malawi. The country is the residence of approximately 16 million people and 53 percent of the
total population resides under the poverty line (Sumberg et al. 2012). Not only that, survey states
that about 90 percent of the total population lives on less than 2 dollars per day. According to the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the number of severely malnourished children in the
country is approximately 46,000 (Chirwa and Dorward 2013). One of the chief reasons behind
the shortage of food in the mentioned nation is several issues associated with agriculture in
Malawi. Poor agricultural practice has left the country with low crop yields and rampant food
shortages (Pauw, Beck and Mussa 2016). While sustainable living is gaining popularity in the
developed nation, poorer nations like Malawi struggle to practice agriculture without destroying
the environment. In this report, analysis of the reasons behind food shortage in Malawi along
with evolution of the mentioned aspect of poverty will be performed. Along with that, this report
will also contain recommendations for eradicating the mentioned issues.
Discussion/ Body
The analysis of the reasons behind food shortage in Malawi
One of the major reasons behind current food shortage in Malawi is the famine that took place in
Malawi in the year 2012. According to ActionAid, the mentioned incident has resulted in death
of more than 3000 individuals. 85 percent of the total population in Malawi is dependent upon

3DEVELOPMENTS PROBLEM, POLICIES AND PROGRAM
agriculture as their primary source of income (Ngwira, Aune and Mkwinda 2012). The primary
crops grown by the Malawi peasants are wheat and potato. Due to the famine, in 2013, maize
harvest fell from 2.5 million to 1.7 million metric tons, which in turn, created a national deficit of
273,000 metric tons as a result of which a huge number of Malawi individuals were affected
(Jerven 2014). According to researchers, poor agricultural practices can be pointed out as a major
reason behind food crisis in Malawi (Chibwana, Fisher and Shively 2012). To a majority of
Malawi population, agriculture is not only the chief source of their income but also the chief
resource of their food. As a result of this, failure to grow crop due to natural disasters or adverse
climatic conditions like unreliable rain, poor and infertile soil, creates an extremely dire
situation. In such conditions, the families get entirely dependent on the hand outs from charitable
institutions and on other communities. In situations when no such facilities are available, the
Malawi people are left with no other option but to starve.
Being the 8th poorest country across the world, thee peasants of Malawi faces a huge
range of challenges (Jerven 2014). The two major reasons behind crop failure is the low nutrients
in soil and dry climatic condition. As discussed earlier, the chief crop grown by Malawi is
Maize, a plant that needs nutrient as well as heavy rainfall to thrive. A bad monsoon results in a
poor yield. Moreover, being the farmers of a poor country, Malawi farmers are not able to afford
irrigation systems for watering crops at that time of the year.
Another reason behind food shortage in Malawi is the lack of technologically advanced
agricultural tools in Malawi. Malawi farmers use to burn their fields in order to make way for the
next crop. Previously, this method was not as impactful as now since there was a lot of land to go
round. However with enhancement in population, this method has lost its viability (Ngwira et al.,
2014). Burning fields damages the fertility of the soil by depriving it of the organic matter which