Consumption meat and meat products may be necessary for the good health of a human body, but Maximino Chibayo a Malawian who hails from a village on the Malawi Zambia boarder, meat is simply un affordable for his family.

“I last ate meat four months ago,” he declared when interviewed in his home village recently.

Maximino was born in August 1975 and hails from Nzikaola Village, T/A Mlonyeni in Mchinji District very close to villages surrounding a Chewa Traditional Authority Pembamoyo of neighboring Zambia.

“I exchanged 145 bananas from my garden with half a kilogram of pork about four months ago. That is the last time my family and I had meat,” Chibayo reveals.

But why does he not have meat regularly.

“That is food for rich people and I am not one of them,” he snaps.

Chibayo does recall a time when he could access meat products fairly regularly.

“Half a decade ago eating of meat was not a big problem. I could slaughter chicken that I used to rare or buy beef from the market after selling agricultural produce,” he recalls.

Wearing a dark blue shirt with uncombed hair and bare foot, Chibayo does look like someone with many needs. He has spent his entire life doing maize production that is regarded as a national staple food.

Despite having 1.5 acres of land in the area, he says one of the challenges in utilizing this land to achieve a bumper harvest is lack of agriculture inputs, change in weather patterns and what he called a heavily publicized system of distributing coupons for buying subsidized fertilizer or seeds.

“We haven’t harvested our maize from the field yet but it is very likely that we will not have adequate yield as compared with other years. I didn’t have access to fertilizer coupons,” he explained.

Chibayo was a standard eight pupil of Kholoni Full Primary school , but dropped out of school after his father failed to continue paying his school fees.

He then decided to venture into agri-business as a means of feeding his family. 12 years later, he is still trapped in poverty, as farming is increasingly failing to make him food secure and earn money for a decent living.

Chibayo at least follows child. He has three children namely; Francisco 14, Cecilia 7, and Elias 5.

He recalls that once upon a time in 2005 after having adequate fertilizer solicited from well-wishers they yield about 12 bags of maize which was enough for the entire year.

Chibayo said what pains him most is the high prices of household commodities such as soap, sugar and salt. This, he says is contributing to food insecurity as most villagers in the area sell their farm produce even before harvesting stage in order to buy such groceries hence reducing their yields.

He suggested that the universal fertilizer subsidy should not be politicized but rather be distributed free and fairly through the farmers clubs to avoid issues of corruption and to benefit the intended pro-poor farmers across the country.

Chibayo, revealed that sometimes his family and two other neighboring families eat together through a practice commonly called Chidyerano.

“Since 2003 we have relied on Chidyerano as a backup to sustain food throughout the year. At least once a day, all the three families we gather in two groups, one for women and children and another group for men,” he said adding that there is no challenge faced in this dish system.

In Elepika, Chibayo has a very strong and supportive wife. The 27 year old mother of three helps out by selling vegetables in surrounding market places as part of income generation for the family.

Elepika believes what can bring long lasting change for the betterment of lives of people in her village is the involved on non-governmental organizations that bring various projects aimed helping the poor.

According to random interviews at the District Commission’s office, the non state actors once showed interest to operate out side the boma, each is located to a particular area to avoid duplication and congestion in one place.