Council distributes relief maize to 3 000 households
Mchinji District Council on Wednesday embarked on a relief maize distribution exercise to 3 181 households facing food shortage in the district.
Government, through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma), launched the distribution exercise on September 26 2018 following a bad 2017/18 farming season in which many parts of the country experienced prolonged dry spells and an outbreak of fall armyworms.
Speaking during the launch, Mchinji district commissioner (DC) Rosemary Nawasha said more households will benefit from the initiative after the vulnerability assessment committee report comes out.
“Many farming families in Mchinji did not harvest enough produce due to erratic rains and this maize will help such families to ease food shortages in their homes,’’ she said
Nawasha said government was committed to ensuring that no one dies of hunger in the country.
She warned beneficiaries against selling or exchanging the maize with other materials.
The DC said each household will receive a 50-kilogramme bag of the grain.
A representative of Traditional Authority Zulu commended government for the relief food, saying many families in his area have no food.
He asked government to distribute more maize to other vulnerable people in the district. n
