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In this country of smallholder farms and little employment, the physically able are spending more time searching for food than working to prepare their fields for the next crop, and rural-urban migration is increasing. Individuals and communities are exhausting food stocks, selling livestock, and other assets, mortgaging land, harvesting green maize prematurely, eating maize bran normally fed to animals, eating wild and raw foods and turning to theft which is punished by severe beatings, amputations and worse. This year (2002), however, the hungry season had started the previous November, and by now the 'coping" 'strategies reflect growing desperation. Malawians usually experience a hungry season between January/February and March/April, so they have a range of ways of dealing with food shortages. ** Crude and Under-5 mortality rates Malawi, a food and seeds distribution in Zomba District June 2002 © CHRISTIAN * Compare this to 5.5% found in the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey 2000. Table 1: Results of Anthropometric Surveys - SCF-UK 5,6 Surveys by SCF-UK showed a sharp decline in nutritional status over the same period (see table).
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By February, this had risen to over 70%, according to district assessment teams. By the end of December, 59% of households countrywide had exhausted their food stocks. Overnight the price of maize rose by 340%, from 5MK/kg to 17MK/kg, in many parts of the country. In October 2001, price fixing on maize was suspended. They then failed to replenish them adequately or in time to counteract the shortfall in production. The National Food Reserves Agency (NFRA) actually went further than this recommendation and sold off the entire strategic grain reserves during 2001. Much of the stock had been in reserve for several years and required rotating. Donors, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also recommended that Malawi cut its maize reserves from 167,000 MT to between 30 and 60 MT, just enough for a month or two's buffer in times of emergency. Privatisation resulted in closure of many of the more remote ADMARC outlets and loss of this vital support. This resulted in privatisation of the state run marketing board (ADMARC) which normally buys maize from farmers and provides them with agricultural inputs. The international and donor community had advised the Malawi government to reduce agricultural subsidies, in order to stimulate competition and the private market. The harvest in April 2001 resulted in an overall shortfall of 200,000 MT of maize, with wide geographical variations in production level. This destroyed crops, homes and possessions, and displaced thousands of people. In early 2001, flooding affected over 335,000 people in southern, central and northern Malawi. Malawi, a food and seeds distribution in Zomba District