Nobody Is Going to Starve Says President Mutharika Amid Low Crop Estimates

President Professor Peter Mutharika says no one is going to die of hunger as panic of hunger looms among Malawians in the wake of reduced maize yields this year.

Second round agricultural production estimates show that maize production has decreased from 3,978,123 metric tons realized in 2013/2014 agricultural season to 2,898,123 metric tons in the current agricultural season, representing 27.7 percent decline in production. Other major food crops such as rice have seen a decrease of 13.6%, millet 11.9%, cassava 1.1% and sorghum to 9.3 %.

This decline is mainly attributed to floods and prolonged dry spell that the

country has experienced in the course of the season.

However, potatoes and sweet potatoes have increased by 5.9% and 4.4% respectively.

Speaking at Kaumuzu Palace on Tuesday evening at a press conference, after a two-week visit to the United States of America (USA) where he attended an International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) United States Congressional dinner in Washington, DC, Malawi leader made assurance that government is working tirelessly to ensure that there should be no hunger this year as a team has been set up working on how Malawi can pass through this difficult time.

"We know that there will be a deficit of about 1 million we are supposed to harvest up to 3.1 million and we expect about 2.1 million. But we are working. Now we have set up a committee chaired by Minister of Finance consisting of Minister of Agriculture and Trade and Industry to develop a response to this." Said president Mutharika

"We are also working with World Food Programme. Director General of World Food Programme has assured us that no person is going to die of hunger and I can assure that nobody in this country is going to die of hunger" said while acknowledge that Malawi is in a very difficult situation.

President Mutharika also said his visit to some northern region areas, observed that many people will not have any harvest as crops dried up due to lack of rainfall "There is no question that there will be a big deficit, but we are working on it there are people who have left yesterday going to other countries to look at issues of maize" added Mutharika who repeated assuring the nation that "nobody is going to starve"

Meanwhile, Ministry of Agriculture has put in place several mitigation measures to avert looming hunger including promotion of growing of cassava and sweet potato, distribution of agricultural inputs to farmers for irrigation farming and f Government in line with the Malawi Growth and Government intends to prioritize domestic procurement of maize grain a

Development Strategy which aspire to economically empower Malawian farmers by, among other things, providing a market for their grain.