Ending Famine, Simply By Ignoring the Experts

In the country of Malawi, an area that is stricken by great famine, the representatives of the country do not want actual goods and already made foods like powdered milk and bread. All the country is asking for is fertilizer. "Malawi, an overwhelmingly rural nation about the size of Pennsylvania, is an extreme example of what happens when those things are missing. As its population has grown and inherited landholdings have shrunk, impoverished farmers have planted every inch of ground. Desperate to feed their families, they could not afford to let their land lie fallow or to fertilize it. Over time, their depleted plots yielded less food and the farmers fell deeper into poverty." (NY Times.) The leader of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, says that he is only doing what the West does, not what it preaches. He says that he doesnt want to resort to begging the other capitals for food all the time. His people are perfectly capable of making the food, its just they lack the resources to do so. The World Bank has been pressing to eliminate the subsidization of fertilizer for some time now.