Posted on September, 19, 2022 at 08:00 am
KEY MESSAGES
• Households face constrained access to food purchases in markets due to atypically high prices exacerbated by limited access to income, particularly in rural and low-income urban families in southern Malawi. Buying and retail prices for the maize staple continue to be atypically high in the immediate post-harvest period.
June to July, prices of maize grain increased by a range of 7.1 percent to 46.3 percent in all except two FEWS NET monitored markets.
Prices rose the most in northern Malawi markets ranging from 7 to 46 percent, followed by central Malawi markets at 10 to 28.2 percent and southern Malawi being the least at -1.9 to 16.3 percent.
Compared to the same time last year, the prices in July 2022 were higher by a range of 75.8 to 226 percent and compared to the fiveyear average; the July 2022 prices were higher by a range of 67.0 to 171.4 percent. Drivers for price increases remain the increased market demand, especially in southern Malawi, increased transactional costs due to rise in fuel prices, general inflation due to global factors and the recent devaluation of the local currency, the Malawi Kwacha, and higher demand in markets across the border in Tanzania (through to Kenya).
• Recent household survey data indicates a worsening situation across most of Malawi, characterized by high reliance on consumption and livelihood-based coping. According to the Malawi household food security bulletin for June to July 2022, 88 percent of households report an acceptable food consumption score. However, 70 percent of households also reported a reduced coping strategy index of severe, indicative of heavy reliance on consumption-based coping such as reducing the number of meals per day to prolong existing food stocks. There is a 51 percent increase in households reporting severe consumption-based coping compared to last year, from 18 percent in 2021 to 69 percent. Further, the proportion of households reporting severe consumption-based coping was evenly spread throughout each region, indicating a deterioration of food security conditions across most rural Malawi.
• In Malawi, acute food insecurity outcomes continue to worsen, particularly in southern Malawi. In most south Malawi districts, very poor and households face Stressed (IPC Phase 2) and Crisis (IPC Phase 3) critical food insecurity outcomes. Very poor and poor households currently in Stressed (IPC Phase 2) will likely transition to Crisis (IPC Phase 3) food security outcomes from October 2022 through the lean season, November to March 2023. The anticipated deterioration in food security conditions is driven by the coinciding impact of multiple tropical storms, below-average crop production, limited income opportunities, and worsening macroeconomic shocks on financial access to food, including reliance on coping strategies to meet food needs. Currently, in the Lower Shire livelihood zone, the above-mentioned shocks have already exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and food insecurity, including limited coping capacity, resulting in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) acute food insecurity outcomes for the area. Households in central and northern districts remain in Minimal/None (IPC Phase 1) outcomes which will persist through December 2022, with some very poor households likely facing Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes due to unfavorable macro-economic conditions.
Source: RelieWeb