Climate change affects Malawi crops, charity reveals
9 November 2009
Climate change
has destroyed once-fertile lands in the African nation of Malawi
and continues to have an adverse effect on the lives of rural
people, it has been claimed.
According to Nicole Johnston, Oxfam regional media and communications officer
for southern Africa, changes in weather patterns are strongly
affecting farmers' ability to yield good crops, with rain coming
sparsely or in excess.
Some have turned to felling trees in order to ship them to
China, due to failing crops and unpredictable conditions.
Paulo Mkaka, a resident of the small village of Balaka in
Malawi, told the charity: "We get less crops which means we end up
cutting more trees to sell because we can't grow enough food to
eat."
Another villager added that the region has flooded every year
since 2002, making it hard to tend to croplands due to
crocodiles.
Some 14 per cent of people in Malawi are HIV positive, the
charity reports.
In other news, Oxfam awarded a Malawian youth group a new award
for a publication about HIV.
YouthNet and Counselling explored the links between HIV and
mental illness in August, concluding that there was a strong
two-way relationship between the conditions, an observation that
won the organisation the first Susie Smith Memorial Prize.
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