Two Million People Facing Food Shortages in Malawi

Maize prices soared by 231 percent in Malawi

The southern African nation of Malawi is experiencing a maize shortage after two consecutive dry seasons. Maize is Malawi’s staple diet, accounting for 90 percent of all caloric intake, said a report.

“A 50-kg bag of maize used to cost around 13 dollars, but now the price has more than doubled to about 30 dollars – way above the earnings of those living in dire poverty, on less than 20 dollars a month.”

The food situation has further worsened recently, as 30,000 metric tons of maize held in the strategic grain reserves were spoiled.

Queues at Malawi’s state-run maize traders are never-ending as thousands of people wait for days to purchase the staple crop. At the Lilongwe Admarc people sleep overnight in the queue as they wait for a chance to buy maize. More than two million people are facing food shortages this year due to the prolonged dry spells and soaring food prices.  Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

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Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Death toll in Dhaka building collapse tops 300

Death toll in Dhaka building collapse had reached 304, as of posting, and the authorities feared that hundreds of others were still trapped in the wreckage.

• The building housed factories that made low-cost garments for Western brands, especially the European and North American chains, said a report. 

• About 60 percent of Bangladesh’s low-cost garment exports go to Europe,  23 percent to the U.S., and 5 percent to Canada.

• “Wednesday’s collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka killed 112 people.”

• Some 3,122 people, most of them female garment workers, were in the Rana Plaza building at the time of collapse despite warnings that it was structurally unsafe, officials  said.
  

• About 2,350 people have been rescued from the wreckage, but more than half of them injured.

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DISASTER CALENDAR – April 26, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,051 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,051 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs