Thirty-five thousand and seven hundred smallholder farmers from eight districts were all smiles on Friday when the World Food Program (WFP) funded Adaptation Fund programme gave them over K2.2 billion climate risk crop insurance payout.
Speaking during the launch of the 2023/24 farming season at Mkwala Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Maseya in Chikwawa district, Minister of Agriculture Sam Dalitso Kawale urged the beneficiaries to put the money to good use.
He said: “For the past few years, natural disasters such as Cyclone Freddy and El Nino have hit hard on farmers thereby affecting yields. That’s why today, WFP through government is paying out this compensation to farmers whose crops were damaged to cushion these shocks.
“So, let the money be used to buy farm inputs and check food and income security and malnutrition. Government is committed to supporting smallholder farmers to graduate from subsistence to agribusiness farming.”
Kawale further assured farmers that the government will also make sure that crop insurance cover is extended to other crops apart from maize and pigeon peas and lobby for an increase of the amount that farmers get.
On his part, WFP deputy country director Simon Denhere commended the government for its commitment to policies that leverage insurance as a critical mechanism to safeguard farmers from the adverse effects of the climate crisis.
He said: “Malawi is increasingly facing more frequent, intense and unpredictable climate shocks which perpetuate a cycle of food and nutrition insecurity, livelihood instability and deepened poverty among vulnerable communities.
“To address these effects, WFP has partnered with the government of Malawi to implement integrated risk management strategies that address both climatic and non-climatic factors, helping to build resilience among food insecure populations”.
Denhere further said through climate risk management interventions such as risk insurance, WFP aims to enhance the resilience of communities to climate shocks.
“Successful pilot interventions such as the Adaptation Fund project which WFP partners with the Ministry of Agriculture have demonstrated the effectiveness of crop insurance as a critical tool. Scaling up such initiatives can significantly strengthen farmers’ ability to anticipate and withstand climate shocks,” he said.
One of the beneficiaries, Frank Ipo from Mkwala Village, who received K103 200 crop insurance payout, commended the initiative, saying the money will cushion climatic shocks he faced with his maize and pigeon peas crops.
Approximately, 52,000 farmers who were affected by the El-Nino induced prolonged dry spells were insured and 35,700 farmers from Balaka, Machinga, Zomba, Mangochi, Phalombe, Blantyre, Chikwawa and Nsanje districts will benefit from the K2.2 billion
