FAO gives Covid-19 support
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), with financial support from the European Union (EU), has distributed 3 600 metric tonnes of fertilisers to 45 000 households in 14 districts.
FAO Malawi representative Zhijun Chen said in an interview on Friday that the donation was in response to impacts of Covid-19.
He said: “Covid-19 presents a complex environment where operating safely has meant reduced contact among farmer groups, affecting extension services, disrupting to marketing activities, making farm inputs difficult to access and slowing down economic activity.
“These inputs are aimed at cushioning farming households to reduce the risk of hunger and malnutrition resulting from low food production.”
Chen said the fertiliser procurement and distribution was financed jointly by the Kulima Programme contingency fund which contributed $3 400 000 (about K2.6 billion) and the re-programmed EU-funded projects of Kulima and Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change which contributed $890 000 (about K690 million).
The two projects are being implemented in Chiradzulu, Thyolo, Mulanje, Phalombe, Zomba, Blantyre and Neno in the South; Kasungu, Nkhotakota and Salima in the Centre; and Chitipa, Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay in the North.
The fertiliser distribution has targeted farmers that the projects are supporting in these districts.
One of beneficiaries, Evelyn Savala of Weremu Village, Traditional Authority Ndalama in Thyolo District, said the fertiliser will help secure food and nutrition for her household.
“With Covid-19, money has been hard to find as businesses have slowed. What FAO has provided will make me not only food secure, but it will also help me realise more harvest for sale,” she said.
The support is part of FAO’s Covid-19 emergency response initiative which is part of the wider 2020 Government of Malawi National Emergency Response Plan for the agriculture cluster.
The distribution of fertiliser, which took place between December 2020 and January 2021, has been supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, district councils and the auditor general’s office who provided 11 trucks for farm inputs delivery.
