Malawi'’s agricultural sector is critical to its economy, employing around 77% of the population and accounting for 23% of gross domestic product (GDP). The majority of workers in agriculture are smallholder farmers, many of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Despite its importance, the sector faces significant challenges, …
Barely a year after The Maravi Post exposed Carlsberg Malawi Limited’s of polluting Nankhaka River in the capital Lilongwe, the company has once again been accused of heavily contaminating Mudi River in the commercial city of Blantyre. The pollution of Mudi River has prompted an eco-monitoring non-governmental organization (NGO), The …
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some 23 million farmers in drought-hit Southern Africa need urgent help to prepare for the next planting season with only a few weeks left before it begins, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday. FAO said failure to help farmers in time …
Lilongwe — New Partnership for Africans Development (NEPAD) and the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare on Wednesday held a roundtable meeting aimed at finding ways on how they can support women in their agricultural business. The meeting targeted women who are under the NEPAD Gender Climate Change …
Southern African countries have launched an emergency appeal for $2.8bn (£2.1bn) to help feed nearly 40 million people hit by one of the worst regional droughts in 35 years. According to the South African Development Community, which comprises 15 countries, 23 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and a further …
Considerations of risk and vulnerability are key to understanding the dynamics of poverty in rural Malawi. This study measures vulnerability to consumption shortfalls and analyzes its sources using a two-period panel of 2,789 households, drawn from the 2010 Third Integrated Household Survey and the 2013 Integrated Household Panel Survey. The …
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tens of thousands of children across southern Africa are being pushed out of school and into early marriage or child labor because of drought and hunger caused by the El Nino weather pattern, charities said on Wednesday. Southern Africa has been hard hit over the …
Some 18 million people from seven southern Africa countries require emergency food aid, according to the latest report by World Food Programme. The food security crisis in the region has been attributed to El Nino weather patterns which triggered unexpected droughts and prolonged dry spells last year. Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, …
LIWONDE NATIONAL PARK, MALAWI – Half a dozen African elephants lay strewn on a riverside plain in Malawi, immobilized by darts fired from a helicopter in a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species. As development squeezes Africa’s wildlife areas, …
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Water Facility (AWF) will be participating in the 6th Africa Water Week (AWW-6), holding from 18-22 July 2016 at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. On 20 July 2016, the AfDB will unveil …
The devastating impacts of the 2015–16 El Niño will be felt well into 2017. This crisis was predicted, yet overall, the response has been too little too late. The looming La Niña event may further hit communities that are already deeply vulnerable. To end this cycle of failure, there is …
Mozambique: Bankrupting Mozambique - From Poster Child to Cautionary Tale Health officials in Karonga are blaming fishermen for the continued cases of the deadly cholera disease in the lakeshore district. Lewis Tukula, a district environmental health officer said there are continued cases of cholera in some areas in the district …
The United Nations' food agency said on Thursday it needed $730 million over the next 12 months for relief in seven southern African countries hit hard by a blistering drought and faced a $610 million shortfall. The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement the seven countries were Malawi, …
African Parks, in collaboration with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, are helping to preserve this threatened species by moving 500 elephants in one of the biggest events ever to happen to Malawi’s wildlife Tourism. Populations of African elephants are being depleted at concerning rates, with fewer than 450,000 …
Malawi government’s money amounting to M247 billion is going down the drain yearly due to stunting amongst under-five children. This is according to a recent study which Parliamentary Committee on HIV, AIDS and Nutrition conducted which revealed that about 10 percent (MK247 billion) of the country’s financial plan-2015/2015 was lost …
With 6.5 million people - a third of the population - in Malawi facing acute food shortage, UNICEF has committed to continue vital nutrition support for the country's 300,000 children who are at risk of malnutrition in the current emergency. The UN agency has just completed a mass screening of …
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will increase loans to Malawi by $76.8 million, the global lender said on Monday following an economic review of the drought-hit country. The IMF said it was also augmenting Malawi's Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, signed in 2012, by another six months with funding equivalent …
Wildlife experts in Malawi will next month start moving up to 500 elephants to a sanctuary that they hope could eventually serve as a reservoir to restore some elephant populations in other parts of Africa where the threatened species has been heavily poached. The massive relocation, slated for completion next …
The Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) in collaboration with the residents of Karonga have agreed to sue the mining investors in the district, for spoiling the environment as well as infringing the rights of workers. The concerned companies include Paladin Africa Limited and Eland Coal mine Company. Speaking …
For a large majority of Euro-MPs, the G7’s decision to base its programme for food security in Africa on intensive agriculture is a mistake. The European parliament took its first official stance on the subject with the adoption of a report on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition …
More than half of Malawi's population is in need of food aid after an El Nino-induced drought decimated crops, the minister of agriculture said on Wednesday. The drought has ravaged much of southern Africa, but Malawi has been the worst-hit country with more almost half of its population of about …