Malawi: Resilience in the Face of Persistent Drought

The Vulnerability Assessment Committee reports that the number of food insecure individuals has grown from 2 to 11 percent, approximately 1.63 million people, in the last year alone. Late, erratic, or severely reduced rainfall, coupled with high maize prices and limited access to wage labor, has created a food security crisis in 15 districts in central and southern Malawi. Implemented by a Catholic Relief Services-led consortium, USAID's development food aid program in Malawi works with about 20 percent of the population in eight drought-prone districts. The program integrates various activities to address food insecurity, including conservation agriculture, treadle pump and gravity-fed irrigation, alternative drought-resistant crops, reforestation, watershed revitalization, fish farming, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, sanitation, fuel saving stoves, and village savings and loans. Water-related activities within the program have played a key role in tackling chronic food insecurity and building resilience in the face of the persistent drought. Communities in the program have worked to plant indigenous trees, dig water-harvesting trenches, and plant drought-resistant crops like banana and pigeon peas. These efforts have resulted in reduced soil loss through erosion and cleaner rivers providing water for household, agricultural, and irrigation use. Communities that have built their own irrigation trenches have recovered confidence and self-determination, attempting to stave off a yearly reliance on food assistance. Farmers using treadle pump irrigation have seen a difference in their irrigated crops, with yields increasing two to three times higher than before. The positive results of the program are having a ripple effect on non-participating communities nearby, who are beginning to adopt irrigation and drought-resistant crops on their own land. Participating families are increasing their income by planting high-value alternative crops like vegetables and chilies, setting up fish farms, and creating village savings and loans associations. These water-related activities, coupled with interventions in health and nutrition, income generation, and other areas, are tackling food insecurity in a holistic way. With USAID's help, communities are building resilience and learning to lessen and cope with the impacts of the current drought to secure a more positive future for their families. In the 2011 marketing season, farmers in the program sold, as a group, pigeon peas, birds' eye peas, chilies, rice, sesame, and cow peas for more than 34 million Malawi Kwacha, the equivalent of almost $129,000. This success has enabled participating families to purchase essentials that were previously unaffordable, such as tin roofs, food, medicine, and clothing. The program's holistic approach to addressing food insecurity is yielding positive results, and communities are learning to adapt to the challenges posed by the persistent drought.