Ire­land has pledged another two mil­lion Euros of aid to Malawi. The money will con­cen­trate on farm­ing inputs and infant health.

Ire­land government’s inter­na­tional aid agency Irish Aid has pledged the money. Malawi is one of nine coun­tries that receives long term help from Ireland.

From this Press Asso­ci­a­tion arti­cle that we found at the Irish Inde­pen­dent, we read more about what the money will be spent on.

Farm­ers in Malawi will ben­e­fit from the dona­tion that will pro­vide sub­sidised seeds, fer­tilis­ers and pes­ti­cides to increase maize pro­duc­tion for vul­ner­a­ble families.

The cash will also improve infant and mater­nal nutri­tion by sup­port­ing research to pro­vide high-quality, disease-free seeds for moth­ers and young children.

Peter Power, Min­is­ter of State for Over­seas Devel­op­ment, said the fight against hunger was a cor­ner­stone of Ireland’s over­seas aid programme.

“Since the national agri­cul­tural pro­gramme was intro­duced in 2006 in response to the food cri­sis in Malawi, the num­ber of peo­ple need­ing food aid has fallen from more than five mil­lion to fewer than 150,000,” said Mr Power.

“The improve­ments have trans­formed Malawi from a net importer to a net exporter of maize and con­tributed to rapid eco­nomic growth.

“Notwith­stand­ing these very impres­sive achieve­ments, more than 50% of the pop­u­la­tion still live below the poverty line.

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