Local Maize

23rd April 2020:

As Malawi heads into battle with Covid-19 with the most minimal of defences, we in Ireland have no concept of the war that wages this time each year there, against the most deadly of killers which is that of  Hunger.

As we sit and look at News of the tragedy of people dying here every day now, few realise that over 9 million people die each year of this unspoken killer, which is about 25,000, all of them special and precious to someone.

We don’t hear about them because they are poor and voiceless.
While in the same period we waste about 1 million tonnes of food.

This is a little patch of maize, the staple food of Malawi. I am showing this because we can easily feed everyone if we really decided or bothered to.

We show people how to grow their food (Maize here) without chemical fertiliser, without any Monsanto seed and without any noxious chemicals.

The little green multi leaved plant is a nitrogen fixer and the leaves provide all the pest control needed including controlling weevils which often eat 25% of the post harvest stored crop.

There is no money in this for the Multinationals and the foreign advisers are too busy on other matters.
As a result of the influence of the above mentioned it is difficult to turn the tide even though it will be a matter of life and death for many in Malawi this year.