In Malawi, one of the major reasons why political leadership changes is food insecurity.

In the run-up to the September 16 elections, food security was, yet again, a campaign issue.

And on assuming office, new president Peter Mutharika is faced with over four million citizens with critical need for food for the next six months. That is a bill of at least 300bn Malawi Kwacha enough to construct the Mpatamanga Hydropower Storage project which the nation must have.

It is now history that Malawi ever produced enough for her people and for export as, since 1998, the country has faced chronic food shortages due to cuts in production capacity for maize.

However, this endemic shortage of food in Malawi is directly linked to effects of climate change. 

Pest infestations, drought, disease outbreaks, floods and strong winds brought on by climate change make it harder to produce food in Malawi. As a result, the price of food, specifically maize, rises and access becomes more and more limited, putting millions at risk of hunger.

“I was home when Cyclone Freddy hit on March 13, 2023. My house and six other houses collapsed. The cyclone washed away all our crops.

“Climate change, to me, is about changing weather patterns. I struggle to fully understand the connection. What I remember clearly is how difficult life became after the cyclone-it took us a very long time to recover from just a few days of devastation,” says John Grant, aged 40, from Kajawo village in the area of Traditional Authority Chidothe in Thyolo district.

The cyclone struck at the peak of the lean season, when a significant cholera-outbreak had hit Malawi and hunger and food insecurity were high. The people of Kambuwa village in Traditional Authority Chimaliro in Thyolo did not harvest enough that year. They lost lives and property too.

"It was a terrible experience-heavy rains and strong winds destroyed my house as well as those of my neighbors. The cyclone also washed away all my crops, leaving my family facing severe hunger. I was at home when Freddy struck,” recalls Tereza Thomu, 28, a single mother of two.

One after the other, government administrations have been forced to import maize year-in-year-out despite investing billions into exclusive rain-fed farming programs targeting food security.

The quest for food security in Malawi has faced serious disruptions from climate change impacts Dr. Tamani Nkhono Mvula is an expert in agricultural policy and development. He attests to climate change challenges that the country is facing in this effort to fight-off food insecurity.

“The other issue is about floods and droughts and the issue of heat stress. Because there is global warming, temperatures are increasing. These have altered the normal functioning of some crops, especially maize, rice-heat sensitive crops which, with a small rise in temperatures, can drastically reduce productivity or output.

“The other issue …is the manifestation of diseases. The larger Grain-Boler, for example, are pests that we never used to know in Malawi but now are very much prevalent…what we have seen is that over the years we have seen an increase of pests and diseases that were not prone to Malawi and most of these are coming because of increase in temperatures,” says Tamani Nkhono Mvula.  

He says climate change has negatively affected smallholder farmers’ general production pushing up hunger and poverty consequently translating to macro-economic indicators of the country such as inflation “climate change is a very big issue because it is affecting  livelihood in general.

“Climate change is bringing social order breakdown. Let us find ways how to deal with it. If we don’t, it is not only agriculture or hunger. Coherence of the whole society is affected. Hunger is everything…no country has ever developed before answering the question of food security. But now we are seeing what we call a diversion effect of resource allocation. Because food security is the most basic thing, we are leaving everything on development so people should eat first”.

Dr. Lucy Mtilatila is a climate scientist and  Director of Climate Change and Meteorological Services in Malawi. She says there is a noticeable rise in temperatures across the country at 0.02 degrees Celsius per year. Dr. Mtilatila says as small as that figure may look, the impacts are not.

“There are heavy storms associated with lightning and strong winds, intense dry spells, a rise in frequency of Tropical cyclones, frequency of heatwaves and more and more areas becoming hotter than before . There is increased spread of diseases such as malaria since areas that used to be cooler are also becoming favorable areas for breeding disease-causing microorganisms,” she observes citing threats of increased crop failure due to rising heatwaves and the dry spells. 

At least 80 per cent of the Malawi population of 20 million rely on agriculture for their livelihoods and 70 per cent live on less than $2.15 a day, according to a 2019 national household survey.

But floods and droughts brought on by climate change make it harder to produce adequate food. As a result, food prices shoot and access becomes more and more limited, putting many at higher risk of hunger such that undernutrition is the major health impact of climate change.

For the Directorate of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, Malawi needs to invest in adaptation, climate-informed farming practices, irrigation being key innovative climate solution.

“Business as usual will not help in the future amidst climate change.  Development programs should be climate informed. How we build our houses, roads, bridges, schools should be climate informed. Climate risk zoning is important. Everyone should know and understand the climate hazards in his area, to support in decision making,” stresses Dr. Mtilatila.

In the challenge of climate change, humans, she says, may benefit from water associated with storms which can be useful in various ways on being harvested as long as a flood risk is reduced.

“The cyclone severely affected my crop, as excessive water flooded and soaked our fields. We need both moderate rains and sunshine in this farming. Climate change is about extreme weather conditions-either too much rain or too much sunlight. When Cyclone Freddy hit, I was already involved in onion farming,” says 29-year-old Thoko William living under Senior Chief Mphuka. 

Climate change impacts the right to life, water, cultural rights, and health; through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement besides rise in hunger and poor nutrition.

Extreme weather events impact on health facilities and transport infrastructure, such as roads. This disrupts peoples access to basic health care services and eventually their agriculture life. Floods and droughts are blamed for 1.7 percent reduction in annual Gross Domestic Product in Malawi.

Increased exposure to EWEs, the experts say, also impacts on ecosystems. Disease vectors such as ticks and mosquitoes change their way of life adapting to new climates. Dr. Evanson Sambala of the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences-KUHes, says this increases intensity and frequency of vector borne diseases and failure of treatment due to resultant drug resistance in some cases.
  
“We may not be doing enough in terms of planning for and response to these events.  What is even more worrying being that we are not paying attention to other EWEs such as extreme heat. Each year we have periods of unusually hot weather and soon heat waves classified as unusual today could become a normal occurrence in future.
 
“Our local settings are one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change and even a modest rise in average global temperature could have severe consequences for our people especially the elderly, sick and children. We need to take action now,” says Dr. Sambala. 
 
The health sector defines extreme weather events (EWEs) as unexpected weather patterns linked to events such as floods, drought, stormy rains, strong winds, landslides, pest infestations and disease outbreaks. These EWEs cut across many climate health issues and their intensity and frequency are a growing public health concern throughout Malawi where these often occur.

Each year, floods leave thousands displaced without access to clean water. Floods cause deaths and significant destruction to infrastructure and property including vast stretches of farm land. Besides heightened water insecurity, droughts reduce production of food crops such as maize.

Amon Moyo and Thomas Mwase villages in the area of Inkosi Mzikubola are located some 18 kilometers South of Mzimba boma, sandwiched by hills sitting on arable soil scraggy with stones.

Amon Moyo has been home for Sezgipe Zimba for 71-year-old.

“We used to recycle seed in maize production. No fertilizers. And now, the soils are either eroded or degraded because we have over-cultivated the land. Now we buy fertilizers to be able to harvest.

“We used to have a lot of trees that would block strong winds, but now with the population boom, trees are gone. May be that is why we are having unpredictable rains,” he says.

In Thomas Mwase Village, Fumbani Mphepo, aged 69, observes that farming has fast evolved; from production without fertilizers and seed to pest cides and adoption of various technologies. 

“The soils are not as fertile as they used to be. The land has been degraded. We see that rains no longer fall as they used to. There are fewer trees now than before. Climate change is real,” she says.

In Malawi, reduced agricultural productivity is linked to issues of malnourishment and diseases.

For Dr. Sambala, says mitigation and adaptation measures linked to EWEs should cut across infrastructure, policy implementation, behavioral change and community engagement and involvement; to ensure sustainability of such interventions as the designing of health services that are resilient to EWEs in local settings to reduce the impacts, reforestation, building soil and water conservation structures and also sending early warning signals for appropriate responses.

“Over and above this, we need more research on scenario-based predictive models in local settings to predict future distribution of climate variables including estimating the co-incidental benefits and costs of mitigation and adaptation,” he suggests.

At age 73, Yosofati Nthala, of Dowa still works the fields and garden. He is aware that his energies are wearing out just as he is aware that farming is increasingly getting expensive with inputs.

“I always need to use farm inputs such as fertilizer, maize seed and pesticides compared to the past when I could grow maize even without applying fertilizer. Those that have capacity to use more fertilizer in their fields harvest more, unlike those of us who do not.

I am supposed to use fertilizers and pesticides each growing season because the land is less fertile these days and without doing that I cannot harvest anything. Most land has been degraded these years and this is why we continue experiencing climate change". He says of his village in Dowa.

Commentators agree that Malawi needs to find ways to mitigate climate-related challenges; and that all affect agriculture production which is at the core of the much sought after development.

At the moment, most government investment is geared toward rain-fed production for which various experts advocate diverse production systems and adaptation of climate smart technology.

Experts urge increased allocation of resources to other forms of production, for example, irrigated farming and adaptation of conservation agriculture, agro-forestry and other production systems.

Agriculture is sensitive to climate and weather. Agriculture also relies on natural resources affected by climate such as water and land. Climate change, as experts have demonstrated, can affect soil, livestock, crops and water resources, rural communities and even agricultural workers.

“Climate change has opened our eyes in terms of-new thinking. So even at household level now it would be easier for extension workers to encourage people to go into these other crops because of the challenges that people are seeing for themselves,” according to Dr. Nkhono Mvula.

“In the past, we used to know exactly when rains would start. Now it is unpredictable. This affects our farming preparations. I am a tomato farmer. I was at home when Cyclone Freddy struck our area. The cyclone damaged our houses and destroyed crops, which led to reduced yields,” says Esitere Balani aged 27 from Mulenga village in Thyolo adding “I worry so much for the future”.