ReliefWeb

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

 Households relying on purchase as the main source of food dropped by 4.2 percent from 76.4 percent in the last half of January 2021 to 72.2 percent. The southern region continues to record the highest proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food estimated at 83.7 percent. This represents a 1.6 percentage increase from 82.3 percent in the last half of January.

 Nearly 16.9 percent of households owning any type of livestock reported suspected cases of livestock diseases and increased by 2.3 percent from 14.6 percent in the last half of January 2021. The northern region continued to record the highest proportion of households reporting livestock diseases estimated at 25.9 percent up from 19.0 percent reported in the last half of January.

 Nearly 2.6 percent of the households were involved in fishing related livelihood activities, dropping by 0.7 percent from 3.3 percent in the last half of January 2021. The northern region recorded the highest proportion of households involved in fishing related activities estimated at 5.1 percent down from 7.0 percent. Nearly 13.1 percent of the households involved in fishing related activities reported some suspected fish diseases, up from 11.9 percent in the last half of January , representing a 1.2 percent increase. The northern region continues to record the highest proportion of households reporting fish diseases estimated at 37 percent up from 27.8 percent. Districts of Mangochi and Nkhatabay reported suspected fish diseases.

 The average price of maize per kg dropped by 4.0 percent from MK195.58/kg in the last half of January to MK181.94/kg. The southern region continues to record high maize prices per kg estimated at MK197.80/kg down from MK202.90/kg in the last half of January, dropping by 2.5 percent. Average crop prices per kg for selected crops were MK775.45 up from MK766.54 for rice, MK962.47 down from MK974.33 for beans, MK907.98 down from MK934.16 for groundnuts, MK547.84 down from MK592.12 for Irish potatoes, and MK378.71 down from MK396.02 for sweet potatoes when compared to the last half of January.