Growth through Trade – Malawi’s Hope for Poverty Reduction

World Bank --
Malawi has a better chance than ever before to accelerate economic
growth! A team of development partners and the Government are
collaborating in carrying out analytical work to establish a basis for
policy options that will help Malawi build on recent gains in growth
and economic management. These policy recommendations for economic
growth will be delivered early in 2009 in what is called a Country
Economic Memorandum (CEM).

Since 2006 Malawi has had remarkable
growth rates averaging 7.5 per cent, compared to an average of about
three percent during the early years of the decade. The projection for
2008 is for 8.7 percent growth. Growth is good. It increases wealth and
income, which in turn help alleviate poverty.

The team of
development partners working on the CEM includes the African
Development Bank (AfDB), the UK’s Department for International
Development (DFID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the
World Bank (WB). The Ministry of Finance is leading Government teams in
the CEM work, with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development
and the Reserve Bank of Malawi as key local partners.

“The
overarching focus of the CEM will be on providing advice on putting in
place a policy and institutional environment collaborated with
supportive expenditure programs that will enable the continuation and
even   acceleration of the current strong growth momentum through
trade,” says Jos Verbeek, the World Bank’s lead economist for Malawi.

To
achieve its objective, the CEM will review the current sources of
growth, the policy actions that led to the growth, and the role that
trade has played. It will also suggest how the current growth can be
sustained through either intensifying what is already happening or
diversifying the sources of growth.        

Growth is the most
desirable source of additional public resources. Given that how
government spends these additional resources is important for growth,
the CEM will also provide useful insights to  the Government and other
interested partners  on how best to use any additional revenue to
sustain if not accelerate Malawi's growth spurt.

Government is
looking forward to the CEM. “It will help us further operationalize the
Malawi Growth and Development Strategy by assisting with the
prioritization of those policy actions and expenditure programs that
will have the biggest impact on growth, and hence  poverty reduction,”
said Randson Mwadiwa, secretary to the treasury
at the Ministry of Finance.

Growth through trade

The CEM is aptly titled Seizing Opportunities for Growth through Trade.

The
Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) (2006-2011) aspires for
the transformation of the economy, from being predominantly importing
and consuming, to being predominantly manufacturing and exporting.
Trade is key to the fulfillment of this vision. Trading and retailing
activities account for a significant part of the distribution sector.
It is estimated that approximately 22 percent of Malawi's GDP comes
from the distribution sector. For Malawi to sustain high growth rates,
it will have to trade more.

“We believe the way out of poverty is
through growth and trade,” says Lucia Hanmer, a DFID senior economic
advisor. “Successful strategies for growth and trade are ones that are
attuned to country circumstances.”

So, in order to recommend what
can help Malawi’s growth improve and be more sustainable through trade,
the CEM team will focus on establishing the extent of potential for
Malawi to expand its non-traditional exports, and identifying the
constraints that need to be removed in order to exploit this potential.
The hypothesis is that market access might not be a binding constraint,
given that Malawi is currently not fully utilizing existing
preferential trade arrangements. Therefore, Malawi needs to look at
other factors that could be preventing expansion of non-traditional
exports, such as production related constraints (including lack of
scale economies, inability to meet quality standards, energy
constraints) and marketing costs (including high transportation costs,
border related costs, and limited information about available markets).
Further, given the long distances to Malawi’s overseas markets, trade
with regional partners will be critical.   

The role of infrastructure

Key
to trade is transport infrastructure. The MGDS recognises that Malawi’s
poor infrastructure limits the country’s productivity and affects
internal and external trade efficiency. At 53 percent of export value
in 2007, transport costs remain high compared to other countries in the
region.

“Reducing trade logistic cost inside as well as outside
Malawi's border is critical to bring down the high trade logistic cost
of Malawi's exports and make Malawi more competitive regionally as well
as globally,” says Joao Mabombo, the AfDB’s infrastructure specialist.

The
CEM will outline the status of internal and regional transport
infrastructure within the development corridor framework, and identify
key constraints in the transport sector that if addressed can spur
economic growth. Using GPS technology, the CEM team is also identifying
where in Malawi public investment could have the biggest impact on
private activities and thus, growth.

Agriculture as a key sector driving growth

Agriculture
generates over 90 percent of export earnings and 35-40 percent of GDP
in Malawi. It is the main source of livelihood for the majority of
Malawians, most of who are smallholder farmers living in rural areas.
 A preliminary analysis of the sources of growth shows that agriculture
has been one of the main drivers of high real growth rates registered
since 2006, although much of this growth represents a re-bounding of
the sector’s performance following a severe drought in 2005. The
analysis further shows that productivity in the sector remains low
which implies that there is still great potential for agriculture to
continue driving growth in Malawi. The sector is therefore receiving
particular attention in the CEM work.

In 2007, the main
agricultural commodities with positive volume growth were tobacco (53
percent), sugar (nine percent), tea (nine percent), cotton (three
percent) and edible nuts (four percent).  The CEM will assess the
country’s competitiveness in key agricultural commodities so as to
provide evidence on the potential investments and policies needed to
improve and sustain higher growth in the sector. Two complementary
analytical approaches are being used to achieve this: (i) quantitative
value-chain analysis of selected commodities (ii) a detailed constraint
analysis to identify key challenges affecting Malawi’s agricultural
competitiveness.

Partnership behind CEM

In the spirit of the Paris Declaration, development partners are collaborating on the CEM.

“Working
together is helping to build a shared understanding of what constrains
growth in Malawi,” said DFID’s Growth Team Leader David Woolnough.
“Supporting the government, we can use this knowledge to support future
growth and ensure the economy goes from strength to strength.”

The
development partners are so far applauding the collaboration as being
highly positive in bringing together thinking and ideas from a number
of individuals with different experience and skills, particularly
around new approaches to growth and growth diagnostics.

“We do
not believe in duplicating efforts, but in taking advantage of the pool
of knowledge that is available here and abroad,” said the MCC’s Alex
Gomani.

The experts from the donor institutions are
partnering in producing the key sections of the CEM according to their
expertise. DFID and the World Bank are working on the first section on
general economic environment supportive of growth. All the partners are
contributing to the second section on general cross-cutting economic
policies to broaden and sustain economic growth; as well as analyzing
issues of trade (WB, DFID, AfDB), infrastructure (WB, AfDB), and the
financial sector (WB, RBM) in a growing economy. The third section
looks at the most promising sectors that can broaden growth mainly
agriculture and other high potential sectors such as agro-processing
and manufacturing in general (WB). The final section will analyze how
all the issues raised in the different sections fit together in order
to make policy and strategy recommendations to the Government on how it
can sustain and build on the current growth momentum.

Malawi: Food Security Update, Sept 2008

The country remains generally food secure, as households continue to
depend on own–produced food from last season's harvest. Households that
did not produce enough food this season, however, are currently
moderately food insecure or at risk of food insecurity, given that they
must rely on the markets at a time of high maize prices this season.
This is particularly the case in many parts of the southern region,
where some areas experienced crop production failure due to unfavorable
weather conditions (Figure 1).

Most households are busy preparing their fields in preparation
for the 2008/09 agricultural season. The season starts in October and
ends in March, beginning in the south and progressing northward, with
land preparation following this progression as well. To help boost
agricultural production and improve food security, the government's
seeds and fertilizer inputs subsidy program is currently underway and
on–target to arrive prior to the planting rains in early November.

In contrast to previous months, a majority of local markets
recorded a decline in maize prices in September. The decline is partly
attributed to the government's decision to fix a maximum maize selling
price of MK52/kg. At the same time, this decline does not reflect the
seasonal pattern, when maize prices normally begin rising as households
exhaust their supplies and market demand increases with the approaching
hunger season (December to February).

The volume of informal cross–border trade in maize dropped
significantly in the past month, from 8,540 MT in August to 2,185 MT in
September, or about 67 percent. The government's ban on the
large–scale, private trade of maize, as well as the seasonal decline in
tradable stocks in source countries, are likely factors behind this
decrease

Uganda should emulate Malawi for faster economic growth

Mbatau Wa Ngai

It
is heartening to learn that Ugandan leaders joined their Kenyan,
Tanzanian and Swazi counterparts who have gone to Malawi over the past
three months to learn how the poor southern African country defied
donors three years ago and subsidised its farmers whose response was
the doubling of maize production in one year.



In retrospect, it seems incredible any half-competent economic
policy-maker could have a country as poor as Malawi not to give
subsidies to its farmers at a time when entire population was facing
mass starvation. But the donors, led by the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) did exactly that at a time when the
country needed to import 400,000 tonnes of maize.

Malawians’ plight was made worse by its having to import all its needs
through South African ports, railways and road networks which the
country shared with its other land-locked neighbors, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.



Fortunately for Malawi, its President Mbingu wa Mutharika had worked
with the Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions – the World Bank
and the IMF—long enough to know their lack of understanding of African
problems although this did not stop them from writing prescriptions and
demanding that they be followed to the letter or else.



When Malawi refused to toe the then economic orthodoxy that the peasant
farmers be left at the mercy of free market forces, the donors walked
away. But three years later, after first dismissing incontrovertible
evidence that the subsidies had enabled farmers to increase their
production to 3.6 million tones, more than double the country’s
requirement of 1.6 million tonnes, the donors are going back to Malawi.



The lesson here for Uganda and other African countries that have
suffered unnecessarily because of heeding donors’ advice to free up the
markets and get out of business, is that they take a second look and
see what sectors of the economy would be better served by the state’s
involvement.



Those countries that have not completed a wholesale sell-off of public
assets should also reflect on the  fact that the developed countries
that supported the free market doctrine most vocally are today
competing on who will buy a greater stake in their countries’ financial
sector.



In Uganda, the argument should not be on whether the government should
subsidise farmers or get involved in industry or any other business but
on how best it can do so to ensure that tax-payers get the best value
for their money. Perhaps, this soul searching could result in the
government kick-starting agro-business that would add value to local
agricultural produce before exporting them to the regional and global
markets.



This would be undoubtedly better than waiting for private investors
mainly from the industrialised countries many of whom seem more
interested in the incentives they get from government, such as free
land, than in setting up sustainable industries and businesses.  



The result is that some of these fly-by-night carpet-baggers sell off
the land as soon as they get their hands on the title deed. Other
brief-case investors are more interested in taking advantage of their
employees poverty by paying them slave-wages and forcing them to work
in appalling conditions.



Yes, the Malawi experience should lead to a re-think of every policy
that has been imposed from Washington and other industrialised world
capitals over the past four decades. After all, instead of these
policies making the majority of the population richer even in countries
like Kenya where there were no civil wars during the period they became
poorer and increased the gap between the rich minority and the poor
majority

Malawi to host 6th ICT Open Access Conference

(Malawi) Malawi will for the first time host the
6th International Wide Open Access (ICT) Conference from 12th to 14
November in the capital of Lilongwe, APA learnt here on Monday.

Speaking
to journalists in Lilongwe on Monday, Chairperson for the ICT
Association of Malawi (ICTAM), Charles Govati, said the conference
would examine the challenges the open access to ICT infrastructure
model can be harnessed to improve lives, standards of education,
health, housing, transport and production of goods and services for
socio-economic development.

\"Ways and means shall be identified to utilise the
range of available ICT tools and services offered through the open and
accessible ICT infrastructure,\" he said.

He said the conference will among other things address
issues of ICT policy, regulation and impact analysis, research,
education, universal access for economic growth, ICT open source, media
and language, ICT solutions for rural development.

The conference, which will attract local and
international dignitaries, will run concurrently with an ICT Fair under
the theme, “Open ICT Access for Socio-Economical Development.”

Edition of The Big Issue to launch in Malawi

A new edition of the The Big Issue is to be launched in one of the world’s poorest countries – Malawi.

The project is being backed by the Glasgow-based International Network of Street Papers.

The Big Issue Malawi is to be sold in Malawi’s capital, Blantyre, by homeless people and slum dwellers.

According
to INSP, the new project will provide training and employment
opportunities for over 750 disadvantaged people over three years.

Through
its pages, the new title will also seek to educate readers on social
issues and “provide a voice to the many Malawians living on the margins
of society”, INSP said.

The monthly publication is proposing to
launch on December 10 and is currently recruiting a local editor and
staff journalist. The title will also make use of content from street
papers around then world via a news service run by INSP.

INSP is
a charity which supports street paper development all over the world.
The Malawi edition of the Big Issue is being backed by a
three-year-grant of £93,000 from the Scottish government.

It also has backing from UK-based philanthropist Philippe Sibaud and from Malawian charities.

INSP
has previously helped to set up street papers in Kenya, Zambia and
Nigeria, and is also currently working with projects in Burundi and
Zimbabwe.

The Cultural Awakening Society in Malawi will run the new Big Issue project on the ground.

Its
founder Dr John Chikago said: “The economic grant from the Scottish
Government towards the start-up costs for the launch of Big Issue
Malawi for three years is great news to the jobless, marginalised and
homeless people in Malawi. It gives them hope for a better tomorrow.

“Truthfully,
it is the manifestation of the trust and confidence the Scottish
Government has in the INSP and its international partners. As the
founder of the Culture Awakening Society, I am grateful for this
consideration and support."

More than half of Malawi’s population live below the poverty line and it has a per capita GDP of $800.

In
July, The Big Issue magazine announced plans to launch a new edition in
India – recruiting 10 journalists for a December launch.

The Big
Issue started in London in September 1991, founded by John Bird, and
was intended to provide income for its homeless vendors and an
alternative to begging. It was inspired by the New York-based Street
News.

It has regional editions in Scotland, Wales, the north
England and the South West and is also published in Australia, Japan,
South Africa, Namibia (front page pictured above) and Kenya.

Malawi Minister Goodall Gondwe Voted Best African Minister Of The Year

(Malawi) Malawi Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe has
been voted as the Best African Minister of the Year by his colleagues
during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board held in
Washington, DC., in the USA recently, APA learnt here Thursday.

Goodall
told journalists in Lilongwe on Thursday that fellow Finance Ministers
from across the world who were meeting recently in Washington to, among
others, discuss and come up with possible solutions to the financial
turmoil currently facing Third World countries, voted him the award.

\"I am very pleased to be voted as the Minister of the
Year. This was very good encouragement for me as an individual as well
as the nation,\" he said.

The veteran economist who has worked for the African
Development Bank and the World Bank before landing the finance
portifolio, won the top accolade for the economic achievements Malawi
has realised during the four years that he has been the country’s
financial guru.

Malawi triples farm subsidies

Blantyre - Malawi, has more than
tripled its spending on subsidies this year to help 1.7m impoverished
farm families buy fertilizer, agriculture authorities said Friday.

The southern African nation has spent $183m to offer the country's
poorest farmers a nearly 90% discount on fertililzer, deputy
agriculture minister Frank Mwenifumbo told AFP.

"We have spent 26 billion kwacha to procure 170 000 tonnes of
fertiliser. We are targetting 1.7m of the poorest of the poor farming
families to benefit from this programme," Mwenifumbo said.

The same programme cost about $50m last year, but authorities fear
that without the subsidy, farmers might not be able to produce enough
food to guarantee the nation's food supply.

"The subsidy programme is wholly funded by the Malawi government as
a deliberate policy to improve hosehold food security," Mwenifumbo
said.

Beneficiaries will receive 10 kilogrammes of free maize seed and pay
eight dollars for 50 kilos of fertiliser, which would cost $72 at
market rates.

That puts fertiliser far out of reach for the majority of Malawians, who live on less than one dollar a day.

Malawi needs 2.2 million tonnes of its staple grand maize to feed
its 13 million people each year, but its crops have only produced that
much since 2006 - the year after the subsidy programme began.

Before that, shortfalls in local crops meant that chronic hunger was a normal part of life here.

But last year Malawi produced enough to sell about 400 /000 tonnes to troubled Zimbabwe.

- AFP

Malawi’s road to food security

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika is a proud man.

While
being the president of one of Africa’s poorest countries may not elicit
pride, the head of state, who is also the country’s minister for
agriculture, walks tall for achieving -- in just under three years --
what no other African head of state has done.

“My
people are no longer hungry, they no longer queue for hours waiting for
food rations; we can feed them for at least one year should food
production fail due to circumstances beyond our control, such as
drought and floods,” the president told the Sunday Nation in Lilongwe.

He added: “You cannot be proud if you cannot feed your family; everybody looks at you with pity.”

The road to Malawi’s food security is a study in determination and sacrifice at the highest level of government.

The
journey started in 2005 when the landlocked country faced its worst
food crisis after crops were destroyed by drought and floods in
different parts of the country, forcing it to import 400,000 tonnes of
maize.

The imports came in slowly because Malawi had to rely on South Africa’s road network, which is also used by Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Mr
Jeff Luhanga, the officer in charge of agricultural extension at the
ministry of agriculture, narrates with sadness  how Malawians across
the country would queue for days, only to walk away with a ration that
would hardly last a week.

“It was sad watching people, hungry and emaciated, standing endlessly in the sweltering heat for just a can of grains,” he said.

The
images on state television and splashed all over by the international
media were too much for President Mutharika. He summoned Mr Luhanga and
demanded to know why people who were hardworking, strong and had land
could not feed themselves.

The answer astounded the president: “They cannot afford farm inputs, mainly hybrid seeds and fertilisers.”

Immediately
Mr Mutharika decided that if all they needed was seeds and fertilisers
to feed the country, the government would make them available. But the
question was how?

The president sought the wisdom of donors, but they said an emphatic no. He was told his plan would not work.

But 15 years ago when farmers got subsidies, the country produced enough food.

What
had changed? He formed a committee which, under his direct supervision,
worked out a  subsidy programme through which 1.5 million farmers would
be supported by the government in a pilot scheme.

That
year, not only did Malawi produce enough maize, it also collected twice
as much, managed to export some and still offered food aid to its
neighbours. “The results were simply shocking,” said Mr Luhanga.

“When in 2007 we repeated and sustained productivity, the very world that shunned us for defying its advice started talking.”

President
Mutharika committed $50 million (Sh3.7 billion) to help farmers to
obtain seeds and fertilisers. And in the first year, the country
produced 1.3 million tonnes of maize, way above the national
requirement. 

Suddenly, the country was producing 3.6 million tonnes, more
than double its needs. It immediately exported 160 million tonnes,
donated 10,000 to Lesotho and Botswana and retained the rest for its
strategic reserves.

“This year, the donors are
sitting with us, wanting to be part of what they told us would fail
three years ago,” said the proud president. “Some want to fund seeds,
others want to fund fertilisers, others want to fund irrigation, others
farmer training, the proposals are many.”

President
Mutharika is now the darling of international development and food
agencies. They are flocking to Malawi  to find out how the country has
turned around from being a net importer of food to an exporter and
donor.

Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia are among
countries that have travelled to the southern African country to borrow
a leaf from the farmer subsidy programme so that they may replicate it
in their countries as the search for food security takes centre stage.

The
focus on Malawi is making policy makers start contemplating starting
giving farm subsidies to overcome the food crisis that  is condemning
millions of people to starvation.

Mr Akinwumi
Adesina, who heads the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(Agra), that is championing the farm subsidy cause for the continent,
says no country has ever achieved food security without farm subsidies.

He criticises the West, which he says subsidises its
farmers while asking governments in the developing world to abandon
theirs. Governments in the EU and the US spend an estimated $237
billion on agricultural subsidies yet advise Africa not to support its
farmers, Dr Adesina noted.

He said the only difference between a farmer in Europe and his counterpart in Africa is government support.

Malawi takes care of its wildlife

In the heart of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, is the country’s main
Wildlife Centre for the care of injured, orphaned and rescued wild
animals. Set in the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary - the city’s only
remaining wilderness area - the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre is an animal
rescue and rehabilitation facility which also serves as an education
centre aiming to teach the city’s children something of the rich
variety of Malawi’s fauna.



Now the Centre has received a major financial boost as part of the
reconstitution of its management. Under the chairmanship of Mark Sprong
(Land & Lake Safaris) and with HRH the Duke of Gloucester as
Patron, such well known figures as Virginia McKenna have lent support
and the Born Free Foundation has become their major financial supporter
and awareness raiser.



As a result of this, Malawi and the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre will be
receiving some massive publicity boosts and financial injections from a
number of schemes in the UK during the next few months:



Kellogg’s have agreed to promote Malawi and the Centre on 30 million boxes of their Coco Pops cereal.



W H Smith have adapted their Adopt an Animal in a Box scheme so that
this year in the run up to Christmas, it will be Build a Sanctuary in a
Box, featuring the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre.



Thompson Fly are donating the proceeds of their foreign coins in a box scheme to the building of a wildlife orphanage.



The Body Shop Foundation has pledged US$60,000 to support the veterinary work and the construction of a clinic.



The cost of improvements and reconstruction have already required an
investment in excess of US$ one million and the development still has
two further phases to be completed.



Coupled with the work on the Wildlife Centre has been the opening of a
luxury tourist lodge in the heart of the Nature Sanctuary. Guests will
not only benefit from being able to stay in this wilderness area while
still being within the city bounds, but a proportion of the profits
from this enterprise will be donated to the Centre’s work.



For more information, log on to:



Lilongwe Wildlife Centre: lilongwewildlife.org/

The Sanctuary Lodge: thesanctuarylodge.net

Born Free Foundation: bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/paw-centres/lilongwe-wildlife-centre/

Land & Lake Safaris: landlake.net/

Oil price may help Malawi hit growth target: finance minister

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Falling oil prices could boost Malawi's
economy, allowing it to grow this year by the 8.7 percent forecast by
the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said
on Friday.

"From a positive sense we stand to gain, our terms of trade could
benefit from that and this could help us manage the IMF set target of
8.7 percent (GDP) growth," Gondwe told Reuters in an interview.

The African nation's economy, which has been enjoying a modest boom,
was buffeted earlier this year by surging fuel costs. Malawi relies on
agriculture, primarily tobacco, for its foreign earnings and is
dependent on imported oil and gas.

Malawi's government had expected to spend around $300 million on oil
imports in 2008, almost double what it spent in 2007. The drop in oil
prices over the past three months will provide some relief for the
national treasury, Gondwe said.

International benchmark U.S. crude was trading on Friday at about $64 a barrel compared to its record high of $147.27 in July.

One of the poorest nations in Africa, Malawi has seen its economy
expand due to good maize harvests, economic reforms and an increase in
aid from Western nations and other international donors

Malawi hopes to start work on three Chinese-backed projects next year

The government of Malawi has said that preparatory work for three
projects to be financed by the People's Republic of China – a five-star
hotel, an international conference centre and a national football
stadium in the capital, Lilongwe – will be completed this year so that
construction may start early in the new year.

A director at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Hastings Chiudzu,
reports that Chinese firm Shanghai Construction has already completed
the designs for the conference centre and the hotel projects, which are
expected to cost several millions of dollars.

Chiudzu adds that
the Malawi government, for its part, has completed surveying the land
earmarked for the two projects, and has also approved the architectural
designs produced by the Chinese firm.

"I can assure you that
preparations for the two projects are at an advanced stage. At the
moment, the project reports have already been done and sent to the
Ministry of Finance."

The conference centre will include Presidential chalets that will be used during international conferences.

Chiudzu confirms that Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has approved the concept design for the stadium project that the Chinese have produced.

"All
the paperwork for the architectural component has been completed. What
is remaining is to finalise the financial arrangements so that
construction can commence next year," says Chiudzu.

Chiudzu says the stadium will have seating capacity of 40 000.

"We are negotiating with the Chinese government so that we can extend it to 65 000 seats," says Chiudzu.

The
Chinese government pledged to assist Malawi in many projects in
December last year, when the Southern African country announced its
decision to end 42 years of diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish
relations with the mainland, Taiwan's political rival.

China has
also taken over the financing of projects which were abandoned by the
Taiwanese when they pulled out of Malawi. These include the $70-million
Karonga-Chitipa road project in the northern region, and a
multimillion-dollar Parliamentary complex in Lilongwe.

China Road
& Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has been awarded the contract to
undertake the construction of the Karonga-Chitipa road.

"The
contractor from the People's Republic of China is reliable, having done
high-quality work not only in China, but also across Africa. The
Chinese government identified the contractor following a request from
the Malawi government," says Malawi's Minister of Transport, Public
Works and Housing, Henry Chimunthu Banda.

Malawi
and China are also in the process of engaging new contractors
Parliamentary complex, which was abandoned when the Taiwanese pulled
out.

China has also pledged to finance components of the proposed
$6-billion Shire–Zambezi waterway project, which is designed to link
landlocked Malawi to the Indian Ocean by dredging a canal through the
Shire and Zambezi rivers.

Bingu wa Mutharika endorsed as his party's presidential candidate as political scientists tip he is a favourite to win race

BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika -- who is
leading a minority government -- has been endorsed as his party's
candidate in next year's presidential elections, a party official said
Wednesday.

"The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has
unanimously resolved to present to the Malawi electorate Dr Bingu wa
Mutharika as the party's candidate for the presidential race of May 19,
2009," Hetherwick Ntaba -- the party's secretary general -- told AFP.

The presidential poll is being held simultaneously with legislative elections.

Ntaba, who was a top aide to late dictator Kamuzu Banda, said Mutharika's nomination was unopposed.

He
said the decision to endorse Mutharika was taken by the party's
national governing council at its weekend meeting. The party is
scheduled to hold a convention later this year.

Mutharika, tipped
by political analysts to win the race, will run against his arch-rival,
former president Bakili Muluzi, and key opposition figure John Tembo of
the Malawi Congress Party.

Mutharika, 76, turned against his
one-time mentor by ditching Muluzi's United Democratic Front to form
his own party soon after the 2004 elections.

Muluzi had ruled
this impoverished southern African nation from 1994 to 2004, after
wrestling power from Banda in the country's first democratic elections.

He
reluctantly handed over power to Mutharika, after failing to change the
constitution to allow him stand for a third consecutive term.

Malawi President committed to improving infrastructure

President Bingu wa Mutharika has warned foreigners
against erecting substandard buildings in the country’s four cities,
saying he would demolish them.



The president said this on friday in Lilongwe during the swearing-in
ceremony of Jaffalie Mussa as minister of the newly created Ministry of
Housing and Urban Development.



Mutharika hopes with the creation of the new ministry, substandard
buildings he blamed on foreigners would be a thing of the past.



“Foreigners will not come here again and tell us what to do. This is
our land; it will not work even if they take [Ralph] Kasambara to
defend them,” said Mutharika.



This is the second time the president has mentioned lawyer Kasambara, in frustration.



Mutharika first referred to the former Attorney General on his arrival
from UN General Assembly when he blamed the prominent lawyer for
dragging the government to court over a presidential directive to ban
the buying and selling of maize.



The president called it “multiparty chaos” saying in the past people
used to build substandard houses attributing it to multiparty democracy.



The president says he would set new standards to avoid what he called illegal developers.



The president said he would only allow a minimum of eight storeys for
buildings in the cities, adding he would love to see buildings that go
as far as 12 or 20 high.



He has since directed that the municipal markets in Blantyre, Zomba,
Lilongwe and Mzuzu should be under the new ministry while the rest
would be under the local government ministry to avoid confusion.



The president said he had decided to create the ministry because
housing was a critical issue because there is a growing need for
housing in the country.



The president advised the Ministry to ensure that low income civil servants and the youth, access affordable houses.



Mutharika bemoaned poor housing for the Malawi Defence Forces and the
police, saying most of their houses were built in the colonial days.

The president also said teachers and nurses in rural areas have a
daunting task to find a house and called on the new minister to find
ways of providing houses to rural areas.



He also said traditional chiefs need affordable good housing.



The president then directed that the Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC)
should be supervised by the new ministry as no one supervises the
corporation at the moment.



He praised the new minister who was in the company of 14 DPP supporters
from his Machinga home for standing firm with the government and the
party despite being dropped from cabinet last year.



Mussa was dropped from cabinet last year but remained loyal to the ruling party.







“When you were dropped as minister, you never issued adverse statement
and never threatened to leave the DPP. This is remarkable,” said
Mutharika.



The president further said he was surprised the opposition was
questioning the rationale behind the creation of the new ministry.



Speaking after the ceremony, Mussa said he was happy that the president
has trust in him and promised to be dedicated in his new role.



He said housing was a thorny issue in the country as the indigenous were failing to own decent houses.

Malawi Regulatory authorities shut down propaganda private radio station Joy Radio owned by Bakili Muluzi

BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawian authorities said Saturday they had closed
a private radio station recently taken over by former president Bakili
Muluzi as it breached a law barring politicians from owning
broadcasters.

"We have revoked the license of Joy radio with
immediate effect because it flouted regulations," James Chimera, acting
head of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, told AFP.

Chimera
said Joy Radio had originally registered as a private independent radio
station, but "handed over ownership of the station to politicians which
is against the law."

"Malawi laws bar politicians or political
parties from owning radio stations, but Joy Radio Limited is wholly
owned by the Muluzi family and the former president himself chairs its
board," he said.

The station was opened by former Tanzanian
president Benjamin Mkapa shortly before Muluzi retired as president in
2004 after two consecutive terms.

Broadcast regulators and the
government of President Bingu wa Mutharika often accuse Joy of running
inflamatory programmes against the administration.

The radio station has become Muluzi's main propaganda machine, hitting back at campaigns against him in state radio.

Muluzi,
who owns vast commercial interests from real estate to transport, has
been chosen by his former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) to stand
again for president in general elections set for May 19.

He
handed over power to his chosen successor Mutharika in 2004, after he
failed to amend the constitution to allow him to stand for a third
consecutive term.

But Mutharika has turned against his one-time mentor, ditching the UDF to form his own Democratic Progressive Party.

Jack McConnell discusses supporting education in Malawi

FORMER First Minister Jack McConnell was set to meet students in Edinburgh last night to discuss supporting education in Africa.

Mr
McConnell arranged to speak to students at Stevenson College about
their African project and how they can support education in Malawi.

The
project was introduced earlier this year to develop international
education for global citizenship in Stevenson and the wider community.

USADF and Malawi govt join to alleviate poverty

afrol News, 15 October - Malawi
government and US development agency have joined hands in a grassroots
economic and social development programme aimed at expanding access to
economic opportunities for community initiatives.

Under
five year funding to a total of $7.0 million, Malawi government will be
contributing about 50 per cent annualy into the fund.



The deal was signed yesterday in Washington D.C. by United States
African Development Foundation (USADF) with Malawi represented by
Ambassador of Malawi to US, Ms Hawa Ndilowe, and minister of finance,
Mr Goodall Gondwe.



Speaking about Malawi’s addition to portfolio, Lloyd Pierson stated,
“USADF is excited to sign this agreement with the government of Malawi.
The agency is determined to fund programmes at an expedited pace to
meet the needs of the people of Malawi.”



USADF and government of Malawi signed a memorandum of understanding
which allows USADF to fund projects developed by Malawians at
grassroots level leading to greater economic and community development.
Signing allows both countries to join together to help alleviate
poverty in southern African nation.



Also speaking at signing Ambassador Gondwe stated, “USADF compliments
the various activities taking place in Malawi currently. Malawi
appreciates USADF’s assistance and dedication and looks forward to
their support.”



Government of Malawi has recently pledged to contribute equivalent of
US$ 750,000 per annum to match USADF funds. This would increase amount
of funding from $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million per annum.



Regional Programme Director Kim Ward stated “There is tremendous
vibrancy in Malawi’s economy after 20 years of flat line growth. This
is a direct result of the policies of the current government.”



Malawi is the third country where USADF launched new programmes during
fiscal year 2008. Similar programmes have been launched in Burundi,
Mauritania, and Burkina Faso earlier this year.



USADF is a US government agency dedicated to expanding access to
economic opportunity in Africa. Currently USADF operates in 21 African
nations, with over 25 years operating and funding nearly 1,100 African
projects representing in excess of $150 million in support of
enterprises and local communities.

Paladin inks offtake agreement for new Malawi uranium mine

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-, TSX- and NSE-listed uranium
producer Paladin Energy has signed a supply contract with an Asian
power utility for the delivery of 1,5-million pounds of uranium, the
firm reported on Wednesday.

The uranium would be produced by the
company's 85%-owned Kayelekera uranium project, in Malawi, and would be
delivered from 2009 to 2011, "at prices reflective of the longer-term
nature of the contract", the company stated in a quarterly report.

The 3,3-million pounds a year uranium project is now 75% completed, Paladin said.

The
openpit mining activities were also in full operation, with the focus
on opening up ore zones. While ore had not yet been uncovered, the pit
was on schedule to deliver ore readiness by March next year, when the
plant would be commissioned.

Meanwhile, sales from the company's
Langer Heinrich uranium project, in Namibia, during the quarter ended
September 2008, totalled $51-million, comprising 878 000 pounds of
uranium at an average realised price of $58/lb.

Paladin said that this brought sales in line with its original contract schedules.

During
the quarter, Langer Heinrich achieved its initial production target of
2,6-million pounds a year of uranium, with the work on a stage-two
expansion already under way.

Paladin is also considering a
stage-three expansion to increase output to about six-million pounds of
uranium a year by the end of 2010. A study on this will be completed by
November and presented to the company's board for approval.

Further,
the company is exploring the potential of heap leaching the low-grade
ore that was being stockpiled at the project. An initial leach-test
programme is under way in Johannesburg.

If this proves successful, the company will implement on site investigations.

Paladin
expects production at the Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera mines to
amount to 3,6-million pounds a year of uranium during the 2008/9
financial year.

This would increase to 6,6-million pounds a year of uranium during the 2009/10 financial year.

Malawi With First Weather Risk Management Contract New Instrument Helps Fight Negative Impact of Drought

The World Bank today announces its first-ever weather risk management
contract to help Malawi protect itself against the risk of severe
drought. It also marks the first time that a member of the
International Development Association (IDA) is able to access World
Bank market-based risk management tools. On behalf of the Government of
Malawi, the UK Department of International Development (DfID) provided
financial support to cover the premium payment for the contract.


The Government of Malawi approached the World Bank for help
with managing the risk posed by severe drought. Malawi suffers from
chronic drought that cuts agricultural yields and depresses farmer
incomes, negatively affecting the government's budget. When drought
strikes, it increases the price of maize, the main source of food for a
large part of the population. The purchase of the weather hedge is part
of a larger framework designed to reduce agricultural risk in the
country.


"Agriculture is a major sector and source of growth for the
Malawian economy," said Honorable Goodall Gondwe, Minister of Finance.
"Market-based weather risk management tools can not only help protect
against the adverse effects of drought, but are also a potentially
valuable tool for enhancing Malawi's food security."


"We see the Malawi contract as a natural complement to our
work to help countries access market-based tools for managing a range
of risks, including interest rate, currency, commodity and
weather-related risks," said Gloria Grandolini, Director of the World
Bank Treasury's Banking and Debt Management Department.


Weather risk management transactions can be adapted to
countries' specific needs, depending on the type of weather hazard,
level of protection, and the estimated financial loss associated with a
severe and catastrophic event. The potential application of this
product spans diverse sectors, e.g., agriculture, energy production,
and tourism.


The World Bank, working with Malawi, structured the contract
as an option on a rainfall index. The index links rainfall and maize
production so that if precipitation falls below a certain level, the
index will reflect the value of the projected loss in maize production.
Under the contract, if the maize production in the country, as
estimated by the rainfall index, falls to 10% below the historical
average, Malawi will receive a payout of up to a maximum of $5 million.

Malawi drops HIV cash hand-outs

Malawian civil servants with HIV, who used to receive an extra $35 a
month to help them buy more food, are now to get a food handout instead.

"The money may not be spent on what you intended it for," Mary Shawa from the president's office told the BBC.

The new policy is part of a government review into its HIV policy and how best to fund it.

Malawi is among the countries worst affected by Aids, with about 7% of the 13m population affected.

The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says the government is the country's largest employer with about 120,000 civil servants.

Dr Shawa, responsible for HIV and nutrition in the president's office,
said about 38,000 HIV mainly government employees will receive the food
instead of the extra money in their pay packet.

"The recommendation is to give them cooking oil, some eggs as support," she said.

HIV-positive employees will also be educated about the virus and get advice about safe sex.

After years of silence, the authorities spoke out about the crisis in 2004, when a programme to tackle HIV/Aids was launched.

Dr Shawa said that is when free ARVs were introduced.

According to the UN World Health Organization, about 35% of those infected with HIV in Malawi are now taking ARV drugs.

Last year, the government called on all sexually active people in the country to take an Aids test.

The UN estimates that 80% of people with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa do not know they have the virus.

Soccer-Malawi beat Congo to keep alive World Cup hopes

BLANTYRE, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Sweden-based striker Russell
Mwafulirwa scored twice in the second half to hand Malawi a 2-1
victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo in their World Cup
qualifier on Saturday.

The result ensured second place for Malawi in African zone
Group 12 but they will have to wait until the end of the
weekend's full programme of qualifiers to confirm their
progress to the final phase of the 2010 World Cup preliminaries.

Congo, who as Zaire were the first black African side to
reach the World Cup finals in 1974, were eliminated after
finishing third.

The visitors took an early lead after a powerful long range
shot from Lomana LuaLua in the 12th minute. Mwafulirwa equalised
early in the second half and then notched the winner eight
minutes from time.
(Editing by John Mehaffey)

Malawi bans Chinese milk product imports

LILONGWE, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Malawi has banned imports of all
Chinese milk products after contaminated milk and formula killed four
children and made thousands others ill in China, the trade minister
said on Friday.

Chinese-made milk products have been pulled off shelves worldwide
in a widening health scandal after the industrial chemical melamine was
found in milk and milk formula. Melamine is used to cheat nutrition
tests.

Many African nations rely heavily on cheap Chinese imports.

"We have put all our eyes on the imported milk and we are
restricting entry of all milk into the country from China," minister
Henry Mussa told Reuters.

Director-general of Malawi's bureau of standards, Devlin
Chokazinga, said authorities were testing some samples of imported
powdered milk from China and Asia.

"What we are doing is qualitative analysis since we cannot actually
do the quantitative test for the identification of melamine because we
don't have equipment," Chokazinga said.

Malawi established diplomatic relations with China in December last year. (Editing by Opheera McDoom)

Malawi’s ethanol-fuel tests show promise

Malawi has successfully completed a project to test the practicability
of using locally produced ethanol instead of petrol or diesel to power
vehicles.

The experiment was under- taken in two phases by the
Malawi government and privately owned Ethanol Company of Malawi
(Ethco), with the first phase involving the testing of a modified
Mitsubishi Pajero and the second a flexi-fuel vehicle that Ethco
imported from Brazil.

“The tests showed that the performance of
the ethanol-powered vehicle is good, just like that of a petrol-powered
vehicle. The difference is that ethanol consumption for a similar
distance is [slighly] more than the fuel consumption of a petrol
vehicle. This is understandable, as petrol is more ambient than
ethanol, [but] this should be compensated by the pricing structure,”
says Ethco GM Daniel Liwimbi.

He says that,
following the successful completion of the experiments, the Malawi
government plans to procure flexi-fuel vehicles.

“South Africa,
where Malawi gets most of its cars, is working on producing flexi-fuel
cars, which would make their deployment easier. We await this further
development before moving to the next step,” he says.

The Pajero
used in the first series of the experiments was modified to run on 100%
ethanol and underwent two tests during which it was ethanol-driven for
a total distance of 2 110 km at an average speed of 110km/h.

“The results proved that the Pajero can be powered by 100% ethanol,” says Malawi’s director of science and technology, Henry Mbeza.

The
Brazilian-made Ford, which was used in the second series of the
experiments, is designed to run on 100% ethanol or 100% petrol or any
mixture of ethanol and petrol in a single tank.

Malawi launched
the ethanol-driven vehicle research project following a Cabinet
directive which came about as a result of unstable prices of fossil
fuels on the world market.

“Much as we cannot control the price
of fuel on the global market, we cannot afford to just sit down and
watch these events as they unfold,” says Malawi’s Deputy Minister of
Education, Science and Technology, Richard Msowoya.

Malawi
currently uses unleaded petrol blended with 10% ethanol at its
refineries, and before it adopted the use of unleaded petrol in
February 2006, the Southern African country used to blend its petrol
with 20% ethanol.

Malawi produces cane ethanol at two plants:
the Ethco-owned Dwangwa plant, in the central region, and another one
at Nchalo, in the southern reigion, which is owned by local firm Press
Cane. The two are adjacent to sugar cane plantations and sugar
factories owned by multinational sugar group Illovo.

Each of the
two plants has a design capacity of 16-million litres of ethanol but
the two factories are producing below capacity because of the low
availability of molasses, a by-product of sugar production.

Press
Cane and Ethco produce 18-million litres of ethanol a year, which,
Liwimbi says, is not enough to meet local demand, should Malawi start
using ethanol to power vehicles.

Lake of Stars Music Festival begins tomorrow October 10th

Lilongwe (Malawi) A three-day Lake of Stars International Music Festival kicks off in the lake resort district of Salima, 70 km southeast of the Malawi capital of Lilongwe, on Friday.

According to festival organiser Harry Gibbs, the event seeks to promote Malawian music and tourism on the international market.

\"The event provides travellers and Malawians alike with the opportunity to enjoy incredible live music in an exotic and beautiful location,\" he said.

Gibbs added that the event would also act as a platform for international and African artists to gather for music, social and cultural exchanges.

He said with musical genre ranging from Afro Pop, reggae and folk to beat-boxers, gospel and the best of international DJ’s, the festival has something for everyone.

Lake of Stars is a summer music festival that takes place in the “Warm Heart of Africa” – Malawi’s nickname — on the palm fringed shores of the continent’s third largest freshwaters of Lake Malawi.

Seeking Africa's green revolution

From the begging bowl to the bread basket: in just two years, Malawi has gone from famine to food surplus - a minor agricultural miracle.

By applying a mixture of crop breeding, soil management, irrigation and diversification, agro-science experts are helping subsistence farmers to cope with climate change and buck the trend in neighbouring African countries.

BBC science and environment reporter James Morgan has gone into the field to meet the families who are sowing the seeds of a uniquely African green revolution - one which is as kind to the environment as it is to the economy.

"If [environmentalists] lived for just one month among the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertiliser and irrigation canals."

So said Norman Borlaug, one of the founding fathers of the original Green Revolution - credited with wiping out starvation in Asia.

But can technology really be the saviour of Africa's struggling farmers? It has become a terribly unfashionable opinion in the UK, where "green" campaigners are no longer content to denounce GM crop trials. They simply rip them up.

"Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy," said Borlaug. "Starvation is."

I have decided to take Norm up on his wager, by coming to Malawi to see for myself.

Because no matter how many UN reports I've ploughed through, grasping the root cause of the current "food crisis" in Africa is anything but straightforward.

And neither is my journey to Malawi - a sweaty overnight haul which takes me via Kenya, Zambia, and several re-runs of Indiana Jones films. But for heroic inspiration, I look instead to a speech by Kofi Annan, the new chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) - a $200m, pan-African programme, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations.

"Let us generate a uniquely African Green revolution," says Annan, cutting a heroic pose on my crumpled transcript. "There is nothing more important than this."

It is difficult to argue. Over the last 50 years, African farmers have laboured in the heat, while countries like Mexico, India and the Philippines have undergone a green revolution - applying novel fertilisers and pesticides to churn out bumper harvests of new high-yield varieties of wheat and rice.

Empowering farmers

Meanwhile, Africa has been cultivating greater and greater poverty statistics.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where per capita food production has steadily declined.

One third of Africans are malnourished. Soils are among the most depleted on Earth. Farmers do not have access to productive seed varieties and those that do have neither the knowledge nor the tools to reap the harvest. Slash and burn still reigns.

Climate change is forecasting ever more variable rainfalls, and more frequent droughts. Add in soaring fuel prices and the scourge of HIV/Aids, and the average African finds himself surrounded in the kind of perilous predicament which from which even Harrison Ford would struggle to escape.

But it is this very challenge that has drawn the world's crop scientists and agro-economists to Malawi. They hope to pioneer novel farming systems that propel Africa towards a new era of food security.

It has already been dubbed by members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as "a greener revolution".

"Greener" because it works with ecosystems, not against them. A revolution that is "pro-poor and pro-environment", in the words of Mr Annan.

The talk around the conference tables is of "empowering" subsistence farmers to find their own, local solutions - farming techniques which are sustainable, affordable and tailored to local soils, markets and eating preferences.

Over the next week, I'll be taking a look at these projects first hand - catching fish in the desert, planting strange trees in the middle of maize crops.

I'm wondering how women and men, who have been sowing the same maize seeds for generations, really feel about the new hybrid varieties of seeds which are more nutritious, but also more hungry for expensive pesticide and fertiliser.

'Against the grain'

Most of all, I'm curious to find out whether the "miracle" we have read about here in Malawi is bona fide or illusory. Is the revolution underway, or a simple matter of better rainfall?

The facts are these. During the last decade, Malawi suffered six successive years of food shortage, culminating in 2005. One third of the population - 4.5million people - went hungry.

Step forward two years, and Malawi is exporting more than one million metric tonnes of maize, its staple crop.

The government, against the advice of the IMF and the World Bank, has handed out vouchers to 1.5m of the country's poorest farmers, enabling them to buy "inputs" - seeds, fertiliser and pesticides. Meanwhile, yields have mushroomed. Malawians are selling maize to Kenya and giving food aid to Zimbabwe.

The success was hailed last year with Oxfam's Malcolm Fleming describing to the BBC how Malawi was going against the grain of African agriculture.

So when I bump into Malcolm, a well-kent face in my native Scotland, on the flight to Lilongwe, I don't hesitate to offer a warm handshake of congratulations.

"I'm afraid that things have moved on since then," he sighs. "The harvests have been great, but still the food prices in Malawi are still rocketing."

Why? "That's the question," he continues. "The closer I look, the more complicated it becomes. But from what I gather, the maize is being sold abroad at greater prices, and that keeps the prices up in Malawi."

Malcolm is here doing research in the lead up to World Food Day on 16 October. Helping him to raise awareness is another familiar Scottish face, but I'm afraid I am sworn to secrecy. All will be revealed in due course.

"Rising food prices might not be much of a problem for me or you," says Mr Fleming, "but if you spend 80% of your household income on food, and then the price doubles..."

It is a welcome serving of realism pie to chew on as I step out of Lilongwe airport.

The pavements are covered in a blanket of purple blossom - it looks like a fairytale. And the boys cartwheeling down the red dirt roads seem full of beans. But the lumps in their bellies tell a different story.

Malawi tobacco earnings jump to near $500 million

By Mabvuto Banda

LILONGWE, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Malawi has earned close to $500 million from tobacco sales so far this year, a huge jump from $185 million in full-year 2007, an industry official said on Friday.

"This year the country has made $457 million from tobacco, more than the projected 88 percent increase from last year's earnings," Godfrey Chapola, general manager for the Tobacco Control Commission told Reuters.

Earnings had initially been projected at about $348 million.

Tobacco, Malawi's main foreign currency earner, accounts for more than 70 percent of its exports and 15 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

About 2 million of the southern African country's 13 million people depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihood.

Chapola said tobacco volumes had increased from the final estimate of about 170,000 tonnes to about 188,000 tonnes, pushing up revenues for this year.

Higher prices on Malawi's auction floors in the last two years have encouraged higher tobacco output, raising production from 140,000 tonnes in 2006.

On the biggest auction floors in the capital Lilongwe, which closed sales last week, farmers sold their crop at an average of $2 per kg, after President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered buyers to offer better prices or leave the country.

For many years tobacco prices had hovered around 70-90 U.S. cents per kg, far lower than the $1 farmers say it costs to produce 1 kg of the golden leaf.

Malawi reopens agriculture schools to foster food security

APA-Lilongwe (Malawi) As part of his war against hunger in the country, Malawi President Bingu was Mutharika on Monday announced that he would reopen several educational institutions that once taught modern agriculture methods but were shut down by his predecessor Bakili Muluzi due to financial constraints between 1994 and 2004.

Mutharika, who has won praise from both local and international observers for his achievement of food security since he took power in 2004, said he would reopen the farm schools to consolidate a strong base for sustainable agriculture as a basis for the country’s development.

Malawi has been producing a bumper harvest of its staple food crop maize in the past three years, mainly by Mutharika\’s subsidising smallholder farmers with fertilisers and seeds.

As a result, some 400,000 metric tonnes of surplus maize was exported to Zimbabwe in 2007, while 10,000 metric tonnes was equally divided as a donation to Lesotho and Swaziland as Malawi\’s humanitarian gesture to the two drought-hit states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), formed in 1980 to economically empower the region.

MALAWI: Green belts to boost food production

LILONGWE, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has pledged to embark on a "green belt" programme to enable the country, in the long run, to say goodbye to hunger and international food aid.

"Malawi appeals to the G-8 countries to support us to create a green belt around our lakes and along our rivers to irrigate land up to 20 kilometres from the shores. The Malawi government plans to grow a lot of rice, wheat, maize, millet, cassava, potatoes and beans for the local and international market," he told the United Nations General Assembly recently.

Mutharika, who is also Malawi's minister of agriculture and food security, has been applauded for using a subsidy programme for fertiliser and seed to boost local production. In 2005/06 the full US $50 million price tag was met by the government as donors sat on the sidelines.

"The green belts, if implemented, would help us harvest crops all year round, thereby curbing any food shortages that haunted the country in the past. We have been blessed with abundant water resources, which can be used to make the green belts programme work," Mutharika told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe, last month.

The green belts would stretch from Karonga, a town in the extreme north, near the border with Tanzania, to Nsanje, a town on the Shire River on the southern border with Mozambique.

Up to 90 percent of cultivated crops are rain-fed, but Malawi had numerous irrigation schemes along Lake Malawi and the Shire Valley. Many ground to a halt when the dictatorship of Hastings Kamazu Banda collapsed in 1994, partly because they were linked to his former ruling Malawi Congress Party's paramilitary wing, the Malawi Young Pioneers.

The new green belts initiative is likely to cover some of these irrigation programmes, most of which are either lying idle or underutilised. The government will also assist smallholder farmers establish their own irrigation schemes along Lake Malawi - Africa's second largest lake - to grow rice and maize.

Need for commitment

Billy Banda, executive director of Malawi Watch, a social justice advocacy group, said the green belt idea was long overdue. Because of low output on insufficient land, over a third of farmers cannot produce enough and have to sell their labour for part of the year to buy food on the market.

"There has to be political will to make this dream come into reality. Secondly, all Malawians should support the initiative without necessarily looking for outside intervention, because as a country we have all the resources to implement this ambitious initiative," Banda said.

A report by Christian Aid, an international non-governmental organisation, Fighting Food Shortages, Hungry for Change, cited failure by past governments to invest in small-scale irrigation as one of the reasons some families in Malawi face hunger.

"Climate change may be adding to people's food insecurity: long dry spells in the middle of the growing season are becoming common; floods at the same time of year destroy crops, but the biggest problem is the failure by government to tackle root causes of the farmers' problems," the report noted. For instance, policy continued to focus on maize even though this crop is extremely sensitive to water shortages.

Government has since acknowledged the risk of a major food crisis by considering the purchase of weather derivatives – a financial instrument backed by the World Bank - which means that if the country's rainfall dips below a certain level then it will get a pay-out.

Chinese Ambassador applauds Malawi President

Malawi’s new ally Mainland China on Monday
celebrated its 59th anniversary of founding of that country with
revelations that the trade between Malawi and China has hit US$43
million, a 101 percent growth compared to the same period last year.



Chinese ambassador to Malawi Lin Songtian said at a reception to mark
the anniversary on Monday in Lilongwe that the export volume from
Malawi to China has reached over US$4 million exclusive of the tobacco
export, with a growth rate of 112 percent compared to the same period
last year.



“More importantly, more Chinese investors come to Malawi looking for
investment opportunities and one of them has decided to invest US$25
million in cotton plantation and processing industry in Malawi this
year, which will create about 1,000 jobs for the local people and
benefit more than 50,000 farmers and help the Malawi government earn
millions of foreign currency,” he said.



He said the Chinese government will continue encouraging and supporting
Chinese enterprises to invest in Malawi and undertake mutually
beneficial and win-win cooperation of economy and trade in all forms.



Ambassador Songtian also said the cooperation between Malawi and China
in education, health and medical service, media and human resources
development is fruitful.



“This year China has provided 30 scholarships to Malawian students and
officials, and will invite more than 100 officials, experts,
professional personnel and media journalists from Malawi to visit
China,” he said.



Songtian applauded the leadership of President Bingu wa Mutharika whom,
he said, under him the economy has enjoyed rapid development of about 8
percent annual growth rate and achieved unprecedented food surplus for
the recent three consecutive years.

Malawi Vice President breaks silence

Embattled Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha has called for unity among Malawians if the country is to develop.



Chilumpha made the remarks in Blantyre Wednesday when he joined
thousands of Muslims who attended Eid-ul-Fitr prayers, which mark the
end of the month of Ramadan.



The prayers were held at the Chichiri upper stadium.



Chilumpha described unity as the backbone of development in any country.



“We have to unite to achieve the State President’s [Bingu wa Mutharika] vision of developing the country,” said Chilumpha.



Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations this year were held under the theme of “Unity: A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim”.



Chilumpha thanked the Muslim community in the country for braving what he called trying times of fasting and praying.



“Celebrate Eid in peace and remain united,” he advised.



Speaking at the same function, Nikkah and Other Islamic Functions
Association (Noifa) Chairman Aman Kunje said the 30-day fasting period
was hard and difficult but people had to endure if they were to harvest
the best.



“We have managed to contain ourselves, to contain a lot of pain and avoided things God would not want,” said Kunje.



He further said the significance of Eid is the completion of fasting and “as we have come to an end, we are happy”.



“This is brotherhood in Islam according to the Quran. We have to settle
all our differences, and we should reach a point where we can say all
is over and re-unite,” he said.



The prayers, accompanied by other activities like songs and dances apart from prayers, were also conducted across the country.



Chilumpha, a devout Muslim, has been out of the public eye and ear for some time following his house arrest on treason charges.



Government accuses him of allegedly hiring two South Africa-based assassins to kill Mutharika.



His treason case is still ongoing at the High Court in Blantyre.



Apart from his court appearances for the treason case, the other time
he came to the limelight was in April this year when he challenged
opposition UDF national chairman and former president Bakili Muluzi for
the party’s presidential candidate position.



During the elections for the party’s torch bearer in the 2009 presidential race, Chilumpha lost miserably to Muluzi.



Apart from the underground campaign his group conducted with assistance
of jailed former UDF spokesman Sam Mpasu and the party’s Taskforce,
Chilumpha did not sell himself to the voters.



Things became worse for him when organisers of the UDF convention told
delegates that Muluzi funded the indaba and was responsible for their
transport costs and meals.



Even songs by UDF member and Muluzi’s personal assistant Lucius Banda
were all in praise of the former president, thereby giving undue
advantage to Muluzi over his rival.



Meanwhile, Chilumpha is reportedly vying for Nkhotakota South
constituency where he is likely to face UDF favoured and his former
lawyer in the treason case and old time friend Fahad Assani.