By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, February 11, Mana: Member of Parliament for Kasungu West Constituency, Jairos Bonongwe, has bemoaned the tendency of selling and leasing out arable land, saying it increases incidences of hunger amongst the communities in the area.

Bonongwe said many people have either sold or leased out their land and have nowhere to cultivate crops hence they perpetually experience food shortages.

He was speaking on Saturday at Chidzenje in Traditional Authority Lukwa during an interface he organized to discuss possible solutions to the perennial food shortages being experienced in his constituency.

“It is sad to note that most of us now are not engaged in any type of farming because we have sold our land for some quick cash. Some of us have leased out our own farms such that we have become labourers in our own farms.

“This lust for quick money that does not even last has thrown us into deep poverty. We don’t have food; we don’t have anything. In the end we blame the President and the government for our own mistakes,” Bonongwe said.

He said he organized the interface to give the constituents a chance to suggest practical solutions to hunger and make the area self-reliant and food secure.

As part of the solutions, people agreed to form farmer’s clubs through which they will be growing diverse early maturing crops that do not require fertilizers, such as cassava and sweet potatoes while the MP will support the groups with cuttings.

Representing Senior Chief Lukwa, Group Village Headwoman Uthonde thanked the MP for the initiative, saying it would make the communities have food all year round.

She said: “I commend the MP for taking this path. In a way it will also help reduce cases whereby people lease out land for many years and stay all that time without engaging in any kind of farming.

“This initiative will also ensure that we harvest several times in a year and also reduce over reliance on maize as a food crop. If we take it seriously, we will defeat hunger.”

According to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report, out of the country’s 4.4 million people that are food insecure this year, at least 143,000 are in Kasungu district.