Sunday, December 2, 2007

Day Fifty-Two: Malawi feeds itself

It's a rare thing indeed - alas - to find good news on the front page, let alone as the lead story. Yet, lo and behold, this is exactly what I found as I picked up my copy of the New York Times this morning. (The only hard copy newspaper I read these days...)
The story in question documents Malawi's significant increase in agricultural productivity this year, following a national programme to distribute subsidised fertiliser to farmers. The programme was instigated by Malawi's president – following severe food shortages in recent years, which had led to widespread suffering across the country - and he was keen to find a solution that didn't entail dependency on humanitarian aid. Interestingly, many international donors had urged the government not to enact subsidies - and some are now eating their words. The UK, for example, has latterly given $8m to support the subsidy programme, having apparently voiced concern initially. There are of course questions over the programme's sustainability (indeed it's worth reading the whole NY Times article to appreciate the nuances) but for now the strategy appears to be giving Malawian agriculture (and sovereignty) just the boost it needed. And for those who can now feed their families, having been unable to last year, it's a most welcome sign of hope.

(Picture from NY Times slide show.)

1 comment:

Harry said...

This is really hopeful news. Helping people to help themselves is the best form of aid and this appears to be working well.
I'm not sure what happened to the green revolution that bio-technology promised a while back. If African countries embraced the idea of GM crops (in the way that the US has done, and Europe hasn't)the benefits could be even more dramatic.