The World Food Programme (WFP) has said Malawi is losing 600,000 tonnes of maize every year due to post harvest losses.
WFP Country Director Simon Denhere said the amount of maize lost is enough to feed all people in need and eliminate hunger in the country.
Denhere said this in Lilongwe on Wednesday at the curtain raiser event for the World Food Day celebration.
Times Business rough calculations have revealed that at the current government set maize price of K600 per kg for Admarc, the 600,000 tonnes could cost K360 billion.
He said the annual food security assessment conducted by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) in the months of June to July this year, has found that over 4.4 million people, representing 22 percent of Malawi’s 19.6 million population, are unable to meet their annual food requirements.
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This, according to Denhere, is a 15 percent increase in the number of those requiring food assistance this year compared to 2022.
The WFP chief said the situation in Malawi is attributed to climatic shocks, such as the Tropical Cyclone Freddy, dry spells in some parts of the country, floods, rising food prices and limited availability of fertiliser for rural smallholder farmers, leading to below-average crop production.
“Unfortunately, some of the crop is lost as it is transported from the farm to the table. In Malawi, smallholder farmers lose up to about 27 percent of harvest due to poor post-harvest handling practices.
“Up to 600,000 tonnes of maize are lost each year across Malawi, enough to feed all people in need and eliminate hunger in the country,” Denhere said.
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He observed that the use of new, but largely available, technologies such as hermetic bags to store the products should be encouraged.
According to Denhere, reducing or eliminating food losses and waste will be a key milestone to tackle the larger problem of hunger and malnutrition.
“As we celebrate food today, let us remember that we collectively need to take urgent action to protect livelihoods and reduce food consumption gaps,” he said.
Globally, World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 to raise awareness on hunger and sustainable food systems for the future of food, people, and the planet.
The global theme this year is ‘Water Is Life, Water Is Food. Leave No One Behind’.
Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale said Malawians need to transform the way they produce, process, supply and consume food, to make it environmentally sustainable for future generations.
Kawale said Malawi must transform her food systems if the country is to achieve the goal of zero hunger and healthy diets for all by 2030.
“Secondly, we must diversify our diets rather than depending on maize alone. In Malawi where 90 percent of the population relies on maize as a staple food, we should ensure diversified and nutritious diets as we work towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 of Zero Hunger.
“This diversification must start from production. We should start producing a diverse variety of high-yielding healthy crops that will give us healthy diets while safeguarding our environment,” Kawale said.
