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USAID Provides Additional Assistance to Food Insecure Populations in Malawi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2005
05-123
Press Office: 202-712-4320
Public Information: 202-712-4810
www.usaid.gov

Contact: USAID Press Office

Washington, D.C. - In response to the deteriorating food security situation in Malawi, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today it is providing nearly $840,000 to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to help 30,000 vulnerable households.

The U.S. assistance, delivered through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), will provide much needed seeds and fertilizer to smallholder farming households to use for planting in the coming weeks. In September, USAID/OFDA committed $400,000 to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) to monitor the nutritional status of children in Malawi.

These programs complement USAID's ongoing food assistance to the people of Malawi. Since June 2005, USAID has provided 51,960 metric tons (MT) of P.L. 480 Title II emergency food assistance valued at more than $36.1 million to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). In addition to continuing development programs, USAID has provided more than $44 million in humanitarian assistance to Malawi in fiscal years 2005 and 2006.

Poor rainfall across Malawi in February and March 2005, combined with inadequate supplies of fertilizer, adversely affected the country's maize crop, the primary staple food. As a result, Malawi produced approximately 1.2 million MT of maize during the 2004/2005 agricultural season-36 percent less than the recent 5-year production average. The most affected districts are in the Southern and Central regions. In late November, a revised Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report indicated that nearly 4.8 million people will require some level of food assistance until the next harvest in March 2006. Other factors, such as endemic poverty of nearly 60 percent of the population, a national HIV/AIDS rate of more than 14 percent, and 11 to 13 percent increases in the prices of petrol and diesel, have made it difficult for vulnerable households in Malawi to access food this year.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

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