MALAWI

The Right Honourable Justin C. Malewezi, Vice-President of the Republic of Malawi

On behalf of the President of the Republic of Malawi, His Excellency Dr. Bakili Muluzi and the people of Malawi, I wish to thank the Government of Italy for hosting the World Food Summit. I would also like to thank the Government of Italy for the hospitality and warm welcome accorded to me and my delegation since we arrived here in Rome. We are very delighted to be here in Rome, a city well known for its rich historical heritage.

Let me congratulate the Director-General of FAO, Dr. Jacques Diouf, for conceiving the noble idea of the World Food Summit in the context of the theme "Food for all", which was unanimously accepted by the FAO Conference in October 1995 and supported by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1995. I also would like to join the other Heads of States and delegations to congratulate you for being elected Chairman of this important Summit, the first of its kind in 50 years. I wish you, Mr. Chairman, all success in guiding the deliberations of this Summit.

I also find it appropriate to place on record Malawi's gratitude for the invitation to this Summit. The invitation was accepted as a way of expressing our willingness to be part and parcel of the global effort to achieve the goal of Food for All by the year 2015. Furthermore, Malawi is aware that hunger and famine, irrespective of their cause, but commonly precipitated by war, drought, poverty and natural disasters, are a serious and complex problem requiring urgent multi-sectoral and global attention.

The theme of the Summit "Food for all", is embodied in the current polices of the Malawi government and I believe that this is the same for all other Member States represented at this Summit. In this regard, Malawi highly values this Summit, particularly because of the fact that, without sustainable food security, our sovereign states are highly vulnerable and susceptible to hunger, civil strife, retarded development, deterioration in health, high mortality and degradation of the environment. Subsequently, all these lead to insurmountable disasters and anarchy, the first victims of which are usually innocent children and women.

Malawi is a land-locked country in Southern Africa bordered by Tanzania to the north, Zambia to the north-west and Mozambique to the south, with a land area of 119 000 kms² of which 80 percent is land and 20 percent is water. The climate is strongly influenced by altitude and exposure to the main rain bearing winds and annual rainfall varies from 700 mm to 1 300 mm. However, most parts of the country received 800 mm to 1 200 mm of rainfall with mean annual temperatures between 15 and 25^oC and relative humidity ranging between 40 to 80 percent. The current population is estimated at 11 million with a population density of 133 persons per square kilometre and an annual growth rate of 3.3 percent. About 85 percent of the population is in the rural areas and 47 percent of Malawi's population comprises children in the age group between one and 14 years. This means that our dependency ratio is 1.05, which is rather high. The soils vary from ferrallitic to calcimorphic and are of high potential when well managed. At the moment, however, their production potential is constrained by declining fertility due to poor management.

The Malawi economy is dominated by agriculture which accounts for 33 percent of GDP and over 90% of export earnings. Within this sector, the smallholder sector accounts for 25 percent of GDP and employs 95 percent of the agricultural labour force.

With the type of climate, land form and soils that Malawi has, we should be able to grow a wide range of crops to feed the population and have substantial surpluses for export. This, however, is not the case, largely because of the following constraints: poverty, as evidenced by the lack of capital, illiteracy, poor health, high population and environmental degradation; dependence on rainfed agriculture which is regularly frustrated by regular droughts, and exacerbated by high transport costs; and the lack of adequate rural infrastructure to support marketing of agricultural inputs and produce.

In Malawi about 60 percent of the rural population is poor and lives below the poverty line with a per capita income of US$ 60. This income can only enable them to purchase less than 200 kg of maize per person per year. At this level of income, it is extremely difficult to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizer, and improved maize seed to increase food production.

Furthermore, 53 percent of the rural population do not have enough income to meet their basic needs and 30 percent do not have enough income to meet their calorie needs. Overall, it is estimated that 60 percent of households run out of food three months before the next harvest and in 1995, 48 percent of children under five years were stunted and 30 percent of the same age group were underweight. These indicators, together with high mortality rates, are symptomatic of the chronic household food insecurity facing a large proportion of Malawians today. Prior to 1994, this was made worse by the inappropriate policies and poor governance of the previous government.

Malawi's hope and survival lies in the precious natural resources such as the fertile soils and fresh water resources which we are endowed with. Our beautiful country has potential for 200 000 hectares of fertile irrigable land but currently only about 25 000 hectares are utilized under irrigation.

The policies of the previous regime promoted the growing of cash crops which, in most cases, were recommended for production in unsuitable agroecological zones. The growing of traditional crops such as drought-resistant sorghum and millets, pigeon peas, sweet potatoes and cassava were not emphasized but instead emphasis was on newly introduced food crops. This, naturally, changed the diets of the people which had been developed and established over a long period of time, leading to the present situation where diversified food crop production has been narrowed. This was counter-productive to our goal of achieving food security.

Food security, is one of the priorities of the new Government and this will be achieved through appropriate polices and economic empowerment of the rural masses. Enhanced food security will also be achieved through a series of programmes at household level thereby raising the standard of living of the rural population. With regard to the agricultural sector, marketing and trading policies have been reformed to ensure equal access by all members of civil society to all crops. The marketing of crops has been fully liberalized and this has increased producer prices of some commodities to the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Other initiatives by the present Government in line with its poverty alleviation programme and in order to combat food insecurity are:

· Encouraging farmers to adopt a wide range of technologies that are acceptable and affordable to resource-poor households (for example, seed companies are being encouraged to provide improved seed in small pack sizes and ensure wider and timely availability);

· Fertilizer traders and distributors are equally encouraged to import and manufacture fertilizers at prices which the smallholder can afford;

· The establishment of a credit guarantee scheme to reduce credit risk and ensure that credit is made available to farmers who have no collateral. The credit will be channelled through farmers' clubs and associations and in order to capture the marginalized population, the credit will be channelled through women, youth and the disabled.

Poverty remains the main cause of persistent food insecurity in Malawi and poverty alleviation is the major thrust of development policies and programmes of the new government. The goals of the poverty alleviation programme are being achieved through broad-based economic growth by developing free and competitive markets.

In addition, the Government aims at equitable income distribution by allocating an increased share of resources to social services, thereby enabling the rural masses to achieve economic self-reliance through income-generating activities. Funds for these activities are being sourced from programmes and institutions such as the Malawi Social Action Fund, the National Association of Business Women, Women's World Banking, Malawi Rural Finance Company, Small Enterprises Development of Malawi, Investment and Development Fund of Malawi and the Investment and Development Bank of Malawi. Resources from these institutions and programmes will enable rural welfare which, in turn, will increase the disposable incomes of the people and contribute to achieving better food security by the year 2015.

Malawi cannot combat poverty and food insecurity without adequately addressing the issue of environmental degradation. We have in this regard just completed a National Environmental Action Plan which will ensure sustainable agricultural production. The National Environmental Action Plan aims at achieving sustainable development by protecting the environment and restoring soil fertility through appropriate farming systems. This, we believe, is the best assurance of a productive Malawi for future generations and is therefore a reflection of Malawi's commitment to the Global Environmental Declaration in Rio's Agenda 21. As follow-up action, the Government has recently passed an Environmental Bill in order to have in place legislation that guides and ensures environmental protection in Malawi.

Food security is a phenomenon that encompasses a wide range of issues including agricultural technologies, population growth, disposable incomes and capacity to comprehend new innovations. Education has been recognized as a necessary condition for fast and effective adoption of new innovations and this is more so for Malawi as evidenced by the 1987 literacy rate which was estimated at 39 percent. Recognizing this as a constraint to the goal of Food for All, the new Government has instituted free primary school education and is currently expanding the tertiary education sector by, among other things, establishing an additional new university in Malawi. It is envisaged that with the free primary school education, the strengthening of the existing tertiary institutions and the establishment of the new university, Malawi will surmount the hurdle of illiteracy and pave the way to rapid dissemination and assimilation of new technologies in support of the Food for All doctrine.

Malawi will strive to achieve Food for All by the year 2015, despite constraints such as pests and diseases, hydrological, geological and natural disasters. Malawi will continually strive to overcome these obstacles to food security and food for all by drawing on lessons learnt from other countries.

It is our view that a certain degree of preparedness at all levels in the communities is vital for our success and Malawi has therefore formulated, with the assistance of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, a draft National Disaster Management Plan. The plan spells our response procedures to all emergencies and it urges the participation of Civil Protection Committees at community level and functioning of intra-government linkages and NGOs, as called for in the Disaster Preparedness and Relief Act of 1991.

This plan has strengthened the preparedness capacity of the country to cope with a variety of natural and human-caused catastrophes. Malawi's capacity in disaster mitigation has, unlike in the past, been raised to a considerable level to enable the country to fulfil the guiding principles of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/182 regarding necessary action to alleviate human suffering in times of disaster, natural or man-made.

In keeping with the realization that emergency response cannot bring about sustainability in food security, the Government decided in 1995 to link food aid with development through food-for-work, a self-targeting mechanism. Projects under the Food-for-Work Programme include soil and environmental conservation measures in addition to the construction of community access roads. It is hoped that a considerable level of contribution to food security will be attained through the food- for-work channel.

Malawi, as an agricultural country, aims at increasing agricultural production in order to stimulate socio-economic development. To this end, government is committed to removing import duties on all agricultural and livestock imports; and extending preferential treatment to agricultural equipment. To improve export competitiveness and to provide export incentives, Government will further provide tax exemptions and other fiscal incentives for investment in ventures that broaden the agricultural export base. In addition, non-traditional export crops will be exempted from export taxes and the duty on imported inputs for export commodities will be reimbursed and duty draw-back of sales/excise duty on domestic inputs in exported commodities will be provided. In order to promote the efficient equitable use of Malawi's land, land rents of leased land will be rationalized to reflect the market value or opportunity cost.

The theme of Food for All is embedded in our policies and Malawi participated fully in the Committee on World Food Security. We endorsed and fully supported the noble objectives of the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action because these will ensure our survival as a sovereign state and guarantee the future of our children and grandchildren.