Phalombe faces hunger this year
People of Phalombe will again face hunger this year due to a dry spell that has hit the district.
Although the report of crop inspection from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development released last week indicates that the country will have bumper yields this year, the situation is different in Phalombe as crops in the field look unpromising.
Yesterday, when the Archdiocese of Blantyre of the Catholic Church, through Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (Cadecom), launched the Papal Emergency Fund Response to Food Insecure Households Programme, people of Phalombe disclosed that this year’s situation will be worse because rains started very late.
“We thought this year we were going to have sufficient food but, then, the dry spell hit us again and you can see in the fields for yourself. We will not harvest enough,” said one of the beneficiaries, Lucius Mageta.
Diocesan Cadecom Secretary, Mandinda Zungu acknowledged that Phalombe is likely to be hit by hunger.
“We are targeting 3,000 families from Phalombe and other districts such as Mulanje, Neno, Thyolo, Mwanza, Blantyre and Chiradzulu. In each district, we are targeting 300 families,” Zungu said.
Vicar General for Blantyre Archdiocese, Fr. Boniface Tamani, encouraged the communities to plant trees, saying erratic rains that subsequently cause hunger are a result of deforestation.
“My plea to them is that they should seriously start covering the ground if they want the situation to change” Tamani said.
Cadecom donated 50 kilogramme bags of maize, 2 kilogrammes of beans and 2 litres of cooking oil to each affected household.
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