Diversified Diet Urged for Malawi

LILONGWE - Apr 4/06 - IRIN -- Food insecurity in Malawi can be overcome if people's high dependency on maize is reduced, according to a World Food Programme (WFP) study.

The aim of the study was to explore alternative sources of food in the aftermath of one of the country's worst maize shortages in a decade. "Food in Malawi has always meant maize - we wanted to expose Malawians to other forms of food," explained Stacia Nordin, a sustainable food and nutrition security consultant, who contributed to the research.

The survey, conducted over a period of nine months last year, involved 4,000 people in four districts around the country. WFP suggested two approaches: encouraging communities, schools, health centers and households to grow alternative crops; educating community members, students and patients about nutrition and preparing alternative foods to improve diets.

Schools and other members of the community were also encouraged to include alternative sources of carbohydrates, such as potatoes instead of maize, and other food groups like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, oil and fats in their daily diet, said Nordin. Subsistence farmers were motivated to grow vegetables and other sources of carbohydrates, like indigenous varieties of potatoes, not only as the source of a well-balanced meal, but also of income.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies resulting from unbalanced diets retard intellectual development, compromise immune systems, cause birth defects and affect the working capacity of adults. According to a 2004 joint study by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, these deficiencies were costing Malawi more than one percent of its annual gross domestic product in lost productivity.

According to the joint study, more than half the children aged below six were living with vitamin A deficiency, which affects the immune system. "With high levels of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Malawi, access to a nutritionally balanced diet is critical," Nordin pointed out.

The results of the WFP study were "incredible", she added. Participants were encouraged to make their own decisions about improving food and nutrition security, and came up with workable dietary plans. The findings have been produced in the form of a manual, 'Low-Input Food and nutrition Security: Growing and Eating More using Less', which has become part of the UN agency's diet diversification program and will be implemented in all Malawi's schools.

Meanwhile, the UK-based development agency, Oxfam GB, has blamed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the shortage of maize. In a statement the agency claimed that the financial institutions were forcing the government to commercialize ADMRAC, the state grain marketer, which impacted on its ability to deliver subsidized maize and fertilizer.

Many NGOs believed that World Bank and IMF assistance to Malawi was conditioned upon progress made in restructuring ADMARC. "One of the key institutions that farmers have looked to for support when buying maize or fertilizer is ... ADMARC. Even though commercialization of ADMARC ... was announced in 2002, the institution's social marketing functions - and thereby its potential to support the most vulnerable members of society - have still not been determined," said Oxfam.

ADMARC was in urgent need of "restructuring of its management to bring about renewed purpose, commitment and accountability to match the intentions of government to serve the poor", the development agency suggested. Malpractices and shortage of maize stocks had prevented ADMARC from supplying farmers, who have been unable to source seeds from private traders because of high prices.

IMF country resident representative Thomas Baunsgaard denied that the financial institution had exerted any influence on the government to commercialize ADMARC.

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006

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Copyright (c) 2006 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs