Working-afhdr-niger-malawi
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- Figure 11 - Malawi: nominal average price of maize (kwacha per kg) and its trend component - monthly data (2000-2010)
- Table 7- Malawi: Incidence of poverty and ultra-poverty (2004-2009)
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The growth rate of GDP stagnated for twenty years, traditional livelihoods were eroded and inequality among smallholders increased. It was also clear that the inability of government to put in place proactive policies depended also on a lack of a well defined food security strategy. In the 1990s, ad hoc social policy and food security measures were introduced within the context of the Social Action Fund (Chinsinga 2007). Furthermore, the government launched an Agricultural Sector Adjustment Program with the aim of improving food crop productivity through targeted subsidies, the adoption of high yielding varieties and crop diversification. The achievement of food security was hampered, however, by the droughts of 1992 and 1994 that led to the collapse of the Smallholder Credit Association; by the reduced role of ADMARC in remote areas abandoned by the private sector; and by the removal of subsidies which raised fertiliser prices and discouraged maize production (Sahley et al. 2005, Zant 2005). In 1999, under the pressure of donors, the Strategic Grain Reserve was taken over by the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), an independent body financed and managed by donors and working on a cost-recovery basis (Zant 2005) with the role of stabilising the supply and prices of staples. The situation was made worse by discrepancies in opinions between government and donors. The former targeted national maize self-sufficiency by stimulating production and productivity through subsidised inputs, while the UN agencies aimed at ensuring household food security through safety nets, and the World Bank and USAID advocated a fast liberalization. As a result, by the end of the 1990s, Malawi became heavily donor dependent: official development assistance was 25 percent the GDP, and donors provided almost all the development budget. In 2000 Malawi qualified for relief under the HIPC Program. Despite these different views in 1998 , the government introduced with the support of some donors a free agricultural inputs distribution programme, the Starter Pack, aimed at increasing productivity in agriculture, raising the use of fertilizers and promoting food security through interest free credit packages directed to well-to-do farmers (Zant 2005). In the 2000s, the fertiliser subsidy program was broadened so as to support poor farmers without funds for buy fertilizers (Africa Research institute 2007, Dorward et al. 2008). In 2008, the government reinstalled the ban over private trade of maize whose market returned to be fully controlled by ADMARC. The 2000s witnessed also the lunch of many programs focused on agricultural development and food security that aimed at strengthening food security by supporting subsistence farmers, feeding programmes for malnourished children, public works initiatives and direct transfer programmes. Despite this and other efforts, the high prices of fertilisers (see above) and of maize (see next section) compromised the country’s objective to achieve food security. Food prices The 2000s were characterised by a clear upward trend of maize prices with spikes in 2001/2002, 2005/2006, 2007/2008, 2008/2009 (Figure 11). It is likely therefore that failure to increase in a stable way food output affected food security through a steady increase in prices. 26
monthly data (2000-2010) 0 20 40 60 80 J a n -0 0 J a n -0 1 J a n -0 2 J a n -0 3 J a n -0 4 J a n -0 5 J a n -0 6 J a n -0 7 J a n -0 8 J a n -0 9 J a n -1 0 Maize price MWK Trend
Source: authors’ calculation on FEWSNet
Long term trends in nutritional status Due to the lack of an effective agricultural and food policy, by the mid-1980s, even if self- sufficient in maize production, Malawi recorded a child stunting rate of 45-65 percent which was a clear reflection of the dramatic rise of households poverty and food insecurity (Quinn 1986). In addition, the frequency of food security hazards increased over time while the ability of the population to cope with such hazards declined (Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Republic of Malawi 2010). However, despite the quasi-stagnation in GDP/capita signaled by the national accounts (Table 2), the incidence of poverty (based on household surveys) declined during the last 6-7 years, suggesting that food consumption poverty may have also declined slowly – though remaining still above the 50 percent mark (Table 7). Table 7- Malawi: Incidence of poverty and ultra-poverty (2004-2009)
2004 2005 2006
2007 2008
2009 Poor
52 50 45 40 40 39 Ultra- poor 22 21 17 15 15 15 Source: authors’ calculations on NSO data Though child malnutrition depends on several factors (feeding and care practices, parental education, knowledge of food processing, access to quality health care services, disease incidence, cultural beliefs, capacity to implement nutritional programs and so on), the reduction in the incidence of poverty (and improvements in vaccination rates) seems to be behind the steady gains in all DHS based indicators of child malnutritional illustrated in Figure 12. Yüklə 0,84 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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