I returned to Malawi in early October to attend the inauguration of the Orton Chingoli Chirwa Trust. I took this opportunity to spend three weeks touring the country to visit the various beneficiaries of the Scottish Relief Fund for Malawi, which to date has raised around £65,000 for the purchase of food relief. My extensive travels were made possible by the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, the Hon. Aleke Banda who allocated me a vehicle and a driver during my stay. For this I acknowledge my sincere appreciation.

The journey commenced at Mzuzu and Ekwendeni and took me first to Karonga, Livingstonia, Rumphi, Nkhata Bay and from there down the lake shore to Bandawe, Nkhotakota, and Mangochi, then on to Balaka and Blantyre. From Blantyre I visited Mirale, Mulanje, Bangula and Bvumbwe. Finally I spent time at Zomba, Liwonde, Dedza, Embangweni, and Mchinji before returning to Lilongwe. During the visit I had meetings with His Excellency the President of Malawi, the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation and Mr Norman Ling, the British High Commissioner to Malawi.

During these travels I managed to visit twenty-one of the twenty-four of the Fund's major donees. In every place I was extremely impressed by how much the donations were appreciated, and by the efforts that were made by the donees to ensure that the money given was spent accountably, and only on maize and related transport costs. Considerable effort had been put into ensuring that the recipients were those in greatest need, such as the orphans, the widows and related families. Many denominations benefited, as well as NGOs with no religious affiliation, and both Christian and Muslim communities were helped. Efforts were also made to ensure that all three Regions received an equitable share.

In addition, at the start of each day, the vehicle was loaded with maize or ufa, purchased locally, so that as I moved into villages in the more rural areas with no trading stores it could be left for used by the local community. In these locations I sat and listened to the village leaders and women as they raised their concerns about their plight. Throughout the county the story in the rural areas was that of a severe shortage of food and the impending 'njala'. There was, however, an almost fatalistic approach to this reality, and reality it is. In no village I visited did I see any signs of maize being delivered nor hear of any plans to that effect.

Along the main roads and in the towns of Malawi there is a cash economy. Malawi has its own Stock Exchange. However, move a few miles off the main roads and the situation is quite different. Here subsistence farming is the way of life, whereby people grow food to eat and if for any reason the food does not grow, the people do not eat. They have nothing to fall back on and the result is hunger for all. Given last year's floods and drought and the I.M.F. advising the Government to sell off its Strategic Grain Reserve, this huge element of the population have been left almost solely dependent on the arrival of outside aid. Families need food to eat now to stay alive as well as to have the energy to hoe and till their gardens. Much of the seed corn has already been eaten to sustain life. Unless it is replaced now the hoeing will be in vain and even then there will be no substantial harvest unless fertiliser is also available and affordable. The current cost of 1,300 Kwacha (around £12.00 ) per 50 kg. bag is quite beyond the reach of subsistence farmers.

There are now numerous Aid Agencies in the country and no doubt grain is coming in, however there seems to be no air of urgency among them nor do they appear to have a co-ordinated plan for its distribution. It is one thing to store the grain in a warehouse. It is quite another to arrange transport and distribute it to the remote and rural areas. While I was there the United Nations were complaining that only a relatively small proportion of the cash needed and pledged by donors had been forthcoming. Britain has done a great deal but much more needs to be done immediately. There does not seem to be a master plan by the major donors as to how they are going to deal with the complexities of distributing grain, far less fertiliser.

To see, experience and share the initiatives of the local villagers as they deal with their real problems is humbling and they certainly deserve better. To me the one hope could be that the different donor countries take over as a sphere of influence one of the afflicted countries in the region. In my opinion the Malawi Government would welcome such an initiative. Perhaps Scotland and Malawi could set a pattern for this. Could not our M.S.P.s accept this challenge and pay to get grain from Tanzania, South Africa or even India to address the potentially disastrous shortfall and to provide for the distribution of seed corn and fertiliser? If Scotland's existing budget does not stretch to this relatively small sum there is always the possibility of making use of the Tartan Tax. I find it difficult to think of a better way of spending it.