El Niño Forces Thousands into a Hunger Crisis across Malawi
What started as a normal farming season for millions of Malawians in November 2023, turned out to be a nightmare leaving them hopeless after spending their finances and energy on a venture that has pushed them into a food crisis.
Just like thousands of families in Nsanje district, the family of 71-year Samuel Thanki from Harry Village Traditional Authority Mgabu, is now spending up to three days on an empty stomach.
All his crops on a one-acre farm withered due to the El Nino-induced drought that hit in February up to April.
According to him, his children miss classes as the family nears starvation now and has no single grain in their home for their staple food, nsima.
Thanki used to harvest up to 26 bags of maize every from the same field that would take the family to the next harvesting season, but the father of nine now has no single grain to feed his family for the next ten months or so.
“My maize was growing strong throughout January, but the situation changed dramatically from February when I witnessed with my eyes crops wither due to the scorching sun without a drop of rain up to March.
“We are in serious trouble, there is a serious hunger looming ahead, I am hopeless and have run out of alternatives,” said Thanki as his wife and children listened to him with a weak gaze, obviously due to hunger.
Thanki and his wife spend their time searching for piece works to feed the family, but the piece works are not always available forcing them to spend nights without food.
According to villagers in the area, usually by June, a five-kilogramme bucket of maize sells at less than K2,000, but it is already selling at K5,500 this year due to scarcity, predicting tough times ahead.
Thanki’s wife Amalesi, said she is witnessing one of the worst years in her life adding that she is usually on her feet searching for piece works to compliment her husband’s efforts, but there is no hope any soon.
She said: “Whenever it is time for the day's meals, children look up to me as their mother, but most of the time it is when I do not have anything to give them. it pains me to see my children hungry and weak.”
The family’s 16-year-old daughter Victoria and 14-year-old son Madalitso sometimes abscond classes due to hunger.
“It is hard to concentrate in class when I am hungry. We have food challenges here, although my parents try their best to feed us,” Victoria said.
Senior Group Headman Msomo with 59 villages under him, said his subjects need food aid, and if that fails, he fears for the worse that could happen for hundreds of households, especially for the children.
He said winter cropping has also failed because Shire River has extended its boundaries submerging crops that were planted for wither cropping.
In March this year, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a State of Disaster in 23 of Malawi’s 28 districts affected by El Nino saying about two million households and 44.3 percent of the crop area were affected.