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Mambwe district commissioner, William Banda, says the region is anticipated to face serious hunger following the dry spell and heat waves characterizing the 2023/2024 farming season.
Banda said in an interview in Mambwe on Tuesday that situation on the ground was dire as crops were wilting and threatening poor harvests.
“We are in trouble, we are not safe, the late crop fields wilting is not encouraging, we better start preparing for the waste time in terms of food security,” he said.
Read more: Informal sector alliance calls for winter cropping, as dry spells intensify, food shortages imminent
Banda narrated that last year; the area was seriously affected by floods but that now there was serious drought which would result in the area being affected by food rationing for two conservative years.
The country is currently facing a historical dry spell accompanied by heat waves that are threatening agriculture production coupled with human survival.
Maize fields can be seen turning brown from the actual green as farmers start avoiding visiting crop fields fearing the temptation of ‘passing out’ once they witness for themselves the amount of damage the drought causes to the fields.
“I am avoiding visiting my field because I can pass out. I have invested everything buying inputs and spending huge sums of money on cultivating maize, but the climate is betraying us,” said Shadrick Banda who almost broke down while narrating his experience in an interview in Mambwe.
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