Food Security Action Plan (Volume I).

The overall objectives of the Food Security Action Plan are to: i. Assist in coordinating the FSP with the National Nutrition Policy; ii. Enhance the collaboration between the projects and the Government both at central and district level and iii. Ensure complementarity and support to the ADP process. The specific objectives are: i. Prioritize the strategies in the FSP which should be implemented immediately at ground level (in line with ADP objectives); and ii. Develop approaches/modalities for reorienting on going projects and programmes or pipeline projects (in line with the ADP process). 2.1 Methodology for Setting Priorities A weighted scoring method was used to prioritize the FSP strategies. It was adopted because:- i. it is simple and can be administered in a short period of time; ii. it is easy and all stakeholders can participate in the process; iii. it does not, like other methods, demand a wide range of data; iv. it is relatively transparent, which facilitates its understanding by projectors, administrators, policy-makers and stakeholders; v. it can use quantitative as well as qualitative information; and vi. it facilitates the weighing of multiple goals and objectives. 2.2 The Selection Criteria and Weighting Seven criteria have been used to prioritise the FSP strategies, namely: a. All strategic objectives in the FSP that are not covered by the ADP were not taken into the Action Plan despite their high ranking. b. Strategies that emphasise on livelihoods, such as promotion of agricultural production (crop and livestock) (50%) c. Strategies that promote poverty alleviation, by increasing the income of the poor through employment generation, and the increase in quantity and quality of production (20%) d. Strategies that are within the institutional capacity of the different Government Ministries, decentralised offices and NGOs and have a good chance of success. (20%). This is more important with respect to the skills available to plan, implement, and monitor the programme activities. e. Strategies that have a large social and equity impact, i.e. the ability to directly benefit a large number of chronically food insecure households (10%). f. All nutrition activities contained in the FSP were excluded because they will be implemented through the National Nutrition Programme.
The Plan aims at promoting agro-forestry farming technologies (5.2.3). Part 4 aims at developing productive local forestry activities (e.g. fuel wood, timber, and fruit tree production; Operational Guideline 6.2); Part 6 aims at promoting off-farm employment opportunities through economic empowerment and Income Generating Programmes; developing productive local forestry activities (e.g. fuel wood, timber, and fruit tree production). Annex deals with promoting Animal Health and Livestock Development, Fisheries and aquaculture development.
Part 4 deals with: creating a conducive environment for private sector investment and local community participation in irrigation development (FSP Priority Strategy No. 3.1.2.1). Irrigation in Malawi is important in order to assist to address the challenges of food insecurity and poverty which have been brought about by consistent occurrence of droughts and high population growth rate. The irrigation policy aims at managing and developing water and land resources for diversified, economically sound and sustainable irrigation and drainage systems. 4.5 Promote environmental and land and water management for sustainable agricultural development (FSP Priority Strategy No. 3.1.7). 5. Promote environment, land and water management for sustainable agricultural development, including environmental awareness and conservation.
The emphasis of Part 2 is to promote the use of techniques in the form of Integrated Pest Management to minimize crop damage, which results in loss of yield and quality because of pests (insects, diseases, nematodes, mites, weeds, and vermins). This approach employs a combination of two or more of the control methods and places emphasis on environmental protection and preservation of beneficial organisms. By using IPM the use of pesticides is minimized. To protect the environment from the impacts from of unplanned irrigation development the following measures should be taken: drainage of irrigated lands should be well planned during the initial phase of irrigation development; encourage developers to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment on their irrigation development projects; preservation and conservation of the catchment area of the irrigation systems for instance through afforestation and construction of soil conservation structures.
This Food Security Action Plan is divided into five Parts and two Annexes as follows: 1. Background; 2. Priority Strategies; 3. Operational Guidelines for Implementing the Prioritised Strategies; 4. Food Security Strategies and Activities; 5. Institutional Arrangements; Annex 1: Ranking of Prioritised Strategies and Annex 2: Process of Developing the Food Security Action Plan.