Reaching Toward Harvest ...

In the image above, a young girl sits on a pile of freshly picked "maize" (corn).  

Her brothers and sisters are gathered around her - everyone is involved in pulling the kernels from the husk of the corn and celebrating the start of an early harvest.

At this time of the year, corn is just starting to finish the critical growing season.

After the kernels are pulled from the husk, the corn is dried.  

Then, the dried corn is taken to a corn mill.  

After the family pays a fee based on the weight of the corn, the kernels are turned into flour.

Much like many other regions of the world, such as central and south America, one can hear local corn mills grinding hundreds of kilograms of flour early in the morning.

The corn flour is then used as the center piece of most meals.

In southern Africa, typically, twice a day, this corn flour is mixed with water and vegetables to create Nsima (corn stew). 

A quick side note ...

In areas such as central and south America, corn flour is used for tortillas and other traditional foods.  With beans and rice, this often produces a nutritionally rich and balanced diet.

  

In America, we use corn in a central role as well.  Most of our cows and chickens are fed corn.  Corn flour is used in a tremendous variety of foods.  Corn oil is used to fry foods and as an additive in many products.  The feature role for corn in America is even larger.  We also use corn syrup as one of the dominant ways to sweeten our food and our omnipresent processed beverages.  When you drink a Coke or a Pepsi, you are drinking processed corn.  

Our diet, unfortunately, is not typically so "balanced" or nutritious.  Thus, many medical professionals and policy makers argue we produce a escalating crisis with diabetes, heart, and other illnesses.  

We tell ourselves, we are "sophisticated" and modern, yet we continue to pursue some unhealthy paths with vigor!  The power of our commercial engine is strong.   

Back to Malawi ...

Each year, this country moves through a common cycle.

During most months, the weather is hot and the ground is dry and parched.

From November through about March or April, the country receives rain.  Some years, there is a great quantity of rain and water for crops.  Other years, there is drought.

Over 80% of the population survives as subsistence farmers.

By far, corn is the dominant crop.  

Tobacco and a range of vegetables fill in the agricultural mix.

Fertilizer is of tremendous importance.  Without this rich addition to the dry soil, many "gardens" produce a tiny yield.  Thus, farmers throughout the country seek access to this resource.  

I am told a single 50 Kg bag of fertilizer, if used sparingly, will provide support for a garden that is roughly two hectors in size.   As a geeky side note, a hector is about 2.5 acres or roughly 108,000 square feet.

The government provides subsidized packages to a portion of the poor population - a 50 KG bag of high quality fertilizer that sells for 10,000 Kwacha in a store (about $60) is sold by the government to individuals with a "voucher" for 800 Kwacha (just over $5).  Big advantage.  Big opportunity for discriminatory practices and for corruption.  As one would guess, vouchers are difficult to get, even for very poor families in desperate need of help.  

In the villages, families control the use of land that is passed down from one generation to the next generation.  I am told a village chief may provide additional land to a needy family.  

In the countryside, almost every bit of visible land is used to produce corn.  When the soil is weak and parched, the corn grows to a small height.  These plants are often light green or yellow and brown.  When the soil is enriched with fertilizer and there is a healthy amount of rain, the corn grows much taller, sometimes to eight or ten feet, and holds a rich, dark green color.

When we drive into the countryside it is quite common to see on "garden" with very robust corn then a garden a few hundred yards away with fragile, lightly leafed, dry, and poor growing corn.  One family has access to fertilizer.  The other family is trying to grow corn without support.

There is an entire art to the number and type of seeds used in the fields at the start of the growing season.

While the single crop of corn is growing, many families run out of food from the harvest in the previous year.  This is the source of the "hunger season."  

Thus, there is a strange contrast.  One sees lush, green vegetation throughout the country during December, January, February, and March, yet there are massive food shortages.

During these critical and stressful months, everyone is waiting for the corn to grow to its fullness.  

The baby in the picture lives in Mbeza, a small, poor village in southern Malawi. 

She is sitting on her family's first production of corn for this year.

For her family, relief from the experience of hunger is in sight.  Most other families throughout the central and southern regions of Malawi have not started the harvest yet.  Hunger is still in full "swing."