Chiefs Smile as Disaster Relief Initiative Bails Out Subjects

Recently, Lilongwe Senior Group Village Heads (GVHs) Kalumbu and Kasoni, under Senior Chief Kalumbu and Traditional Authority (TA) Msinde respectively, found themselves—perhaps unknowingly—echoing the words of 19th-century American author John Muir, who once wrote: “People are ungovernable when hungry.”

The Response to Emergency and Disaster (RED) component under SAPP II, being implemented in eight targeted Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) in Lilongwe and Balaka, may have just made governing easier for chiefs, thanks to the promising bumper harvest witnessed during field visits in mid-February.

In Chitsime and Nyanja EPAs under Senior Chief Kalumbu, and in Nyang’amire EPA under TA Msinde, all sampled maize fields supported under the RED component conveyed one clear message: farmers will not only have enough food for their households, but also surplus income to invest.

“We’ve bade farewell to hunger—see it for yourself!” said Senior GVH Kalumbu, gesturing toward a thriving maize field belonging to a young couple, Braveson and Lezina Chithope of Kumitengo Village under Nyanja EPA.

Armed with two bags of fertilizer (NPK and Urea), obtained at a subsidized price of K10,000 each, and a free 5-kilogram pack of certified maize seed, individual farmers are expecting to harvest between 50 and 80 bags of maize, each weighing 50 kilogrammes, from a single acre.

“What you’re seeing in this maize field belonging to the Chithopes is exactly what you will find among all RED farmers who not only applied the inputs, but also embraced the good agricultural practices we learned through SAPP II, especially in ridging and planting,” explained Senior GVH Kalumbu.

He continued: “This component of SAPP II has been very helpful to our farmers, and we are confident of a bumper harvest among the farmers under Kalumbu’s jurisdiction.”

“Imagine what one would do with 50 or more bags of maize! Hunger would be history. And as chiefs, we would have fewer disputes to settle among our subjects, because most conflicts arise when people cannot feed themselves,” Kalumbu added.