Food and feed are all edibles, to humans and livestock respectively. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines food as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils, water, together with various macro and micro nutrients required by living bodies to sustain growth and other important process vital for continuation of life. The definition fits for feed too.
Humans as well as livestock need to have their edible materials safeguarded for easy access when required.
However, food security is fundamentally about humans who in turn have duty of care for livestock and other living things.
As the most rational of all creation, humans need a broad range understanding of food, its security and threats in production and logistic systems.
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Food and Agriculture Organisation defines food security as a situation where all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient nutritious edible things that meet physiological dietary requirements.
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Generally, in Malawi definitions of food and food security have been narrowed down to imply maize.
Activities intended to avail foods to households have abandoned other foods like sorghum, millet, cassava, bananas and pigeon peas and concentrated on maize.
Food silos run by National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) are called Strategic Grain Reserves. Even the mission and vision statements point to maize.
Admarc also mainstreams maize distribution as its core social duty as a statutory entity funded by government to ensure the grain is available a cross Malawi.
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The Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) that provides subsidised fertiliser, seed and, recently, goats, is intended to foster food production in vulnerable households.
The above-stated details demonstrate the importance of food and that maize is key to national food security.
Nonetheless, Malawi continues to suffer from hunger years on end.
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs, based on Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report, revealed that 4.4 million people will suffer acute food shortage, hence need support.
This is happening against the background of 3.5 million tonnes harvest of maize. Significant part of maize harvest is from 2.5 million poor local households supported by AIP at over K109 billion in 2022-23 budget and farming season.
NFRA reported maize stock at 68,000 metric tonnes against a demand of 164,000 metric tonnes required by Dodma to help hunger stricken households.
Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (Casa), in its April 2020 paper titled ‘Malawi Poultry Sector Strategy’, reported that there were 160 million chickens in Malawi, 93 million were hybrids; broilers, layers and black Australorps.
Hybrid chickens need specialised feed and the main component is maize.
Besides, other livestock raised in cages for commercial purposes like dairy cows, beef cattle and quails also eat maize meal feed. Beer brewing and puff snacks making companies also use maize as their major raw material.
Many commercial uses of maize pile pressure on the grain as a staple food, perpetually throwing the country in hunger.
A long forgotten public guide, Malawi Food Policy of 2006, talks of government ensuring that no government actions or those of private sector traders would reduce any Malawians’ food.
The policy further warns against building citizens’ dependence on government food initiatives that are unsustainable.
AIP has overstayed its purpose and citizens are addicted to perpetual support, killing the spirit of self-reliance. Corporates have also become lazy to initiate their own commercial arrangements to produce raw materials and wait to pounce on poor man’s harvest as a cheap source.
National food security in Malawi will be achieved if multi-sectoral guidelines are established, ensuring that the purpose for which maize is grown is known at the outset.
Maize harvest from subsidised inputs must be strictly for food security of vulnerable households and any surplus must be sold to NFRA or Admarc as farmers are sure that they can get it back when required.
Just as there is a standing policy on tobacco farming, that those growing fire cured tobacco must grow their own trees for use, companies using maize as raw material for feed or industrial processing must have commercial farmers growing maize for them on contract.
Such crops must be traded on a structured market for control purposes.
There must be a livestock feed policy clearly spelling out guidelines for growing maize for animal feed.
Using maize grown with subsidised fertiliser in feed manufacturing is tantamount to government subsidising the rich and perpetuating hunger.
