Professor Happy Kayuni of the School of Law and Government at the University of Malawi (Unima) in Zomba has bemoaned overutilisation of maize in the country, saying the country is losing out on other potential staple foods.
He said, sometimes, stories of hunger are overbrown because most crop outlets preserve space for the storage of maize, such that, whenever maize is in short supply, the impression created is that there is hunger in the country.
Kayuni said, if the space could be used for storing other crops that have potential of becoming staple foods, the issue of hunger—in relation to maize unavailability— would be addressed.
Kayuni said this on the sidelines of a Food Security in Africa Seminar taking place at Unima campus.
“There is this culture of utilising maize as a staple food. It is high time we considered utilising other crops as important basic foods. Malawians should start regarding potatoes, for example, as proper food.
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“There are a number of factors that have contributed to us ending up [having] hunger, apart from [facing] the naturally induced disasters we are experiencing. We have not moved from the cultural perspective that food is maize and maize only. Focusing too much on maize becomes a problem when the crop does not do well that year,” Kayuni said.
In his keynote address, Associate Professor of Food Security and Nutrition Mangani Chilala Katundu said the seminar would help people appreciate the importance of other crops, the way Malawians and Africans revere maize.
“There is that possibility to end hunger. In Malawi, the government is promoting farmer cooperatives. There is a need to look at small-scale farmers by improving their outputs. However, we need to work on the same in order to improve on crop stocks,” Katundu said.
A team of scholars and researchers based at Unima and stakeholders from other nations in Africa gathered at the Little Theatre to create a platform for policy makers, academics and researchers to engage in meaningful discussions about food security in Africa.
