Malawi: Access to land a problem for rural poor

As Malawi attempts to consolidate gains in agricultural production after three years of drought, experts have highlighted access to land and the preservation of biodiversity as key to future food security. International NGO Oxfam has warned that a lack of access to arable land had contributed to food shortages and was also heightening tensions, with land-hungry communities increasingly encroaching on forests and tea estates. Early last week a land dispute erupted in the Chimaliro traditional area in Thyolo district in the Southern region of the country.