Malawi forecasts normal rains for 2017/18 maize season
BLANTYRE (Reuters) – Malawi will experience normal rainfall levels during the 2017/18 farming season, the Ministry of Natural Resources forecast on Wednesday, raising hopes that the country will meet most of its basic food needs for two years running.
Fertile and tropical Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, periodically faces severe food shortages as most of its staple maize crop is grown on rain-fed small plots by subsistence farmers.
The meteorological services department of the ministry said in a statement that most of Malawi should get normal rainfall but extreme weather events could unfold in localised areas.
“Episodes of extreme weather events such as prolonged dry spells and floods may occur in some places,” it said.
Malawi reaped a bumper maize harvest following normal rainfall patterns in the 2016/17 farming season, when production jumped to 3.2 million tonnes from 2.4 million tonnes.
The previous season had left almost half of Malawi’s 15 million people in need of food aid after an El Nino-triggered drought hit output.
Most global forecasters see a weak La Nina pattern developing in the final quarter of this year, a system that usually heralds good rains in southern Africa.
(Reporting by Frank Phiri; editing by Ed Stoddard and Jason Neely)
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