The 2005 Malawi food crisis is a severe food security crisis affecting more than five million people in Malawi, especially in the south, caused by the failure to harvest sufficient staple maize due to a drought. Malawi produced just 1.25 million tons or 37 % of the 3.4 million tons of maize required to feed its people.

The World Food Program warned that the number of most vulnerable people was more than five million, and the United Nations is calling for a major increase in aid to the region. In August the United Nations appealed for US $88 million of donations to Malawi; as of October 7, 2005, only $15 million had been pledged.

International aid is also needed to help build irrigation systems. Currently only 2 % of cultivated land is irrigated , and the government is trying to increase irrigation to reduce reliance on rainfall.

SOS Children is running an emergency program in Lilongwe and Mzuzu ^*. Another emergency program is run by the Community of Sant'Egidio ^*

President Bingu wa Mutharika declared a national disaster on October 15, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that there are 46,000 severely malnourished children. ^*

External links

• UNICEF:Food crisis in Malawi compounded by HIV/AIDS
• African countries currently in crises
• Malawi hunger shocks Jordanian princess — The Nation (accessed December 31, 2005)
• Malawi's water worries: too much or too little — Reuters (accessed January 25, 2006)
• Malawi Food Crisis Awareness, an interest group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

History of Malawi | Famines