This Is How Malawi National Budget Will Tackle Food Situation

A Sneak Peek Into 2016/2017 Budget 

The 2016/2017 National Budget will have more cuts on some expenditures to allow more funds to be used to subdue the hunger situation the country is facing.

Goodall Gondwe

Goodall Gondwe, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is expected to present the Budget in few weeks time as Third Meeting in the 46th Session of Parliament to consider the 2016/2017 Budget begins this Friday, May 20 and will end on Friday, July 8, 2016.

Malawi requires close to 1.3 million metric tons of staple food following the persistent drought which has reduced the 2016 maize production by 12 percent less than previous season.

“This time as far as food is concerned we have three problems” he said mentioning low food production as first problem

The second problem he said Malawi will probably be forced “to go much further perhaps even outside Africa to import food” because neighboring countries like Zambia including South Africa that used to sell food to Malawi when faced with similar situation are also short of food this year.

“The third problem is that because people have not produced enough food they haven’t had much to sell and therefore they do not have enough money in the pocket. When we bring food in the country it will have to be sold and our people may not have enough money” he said indicating “We will have to find ways of getting money to the rural areas for example the budget is going to be concerned with that also.”

“Well, we are going to do something about all these three problems; there are problems that have to be solved, it means also that some of the things that we always do we may have to reduce a little so that we can get food for people to eat”