Southern Region (Malawi)

The Southern Region of Malawi is with an area of ​​31,753 km ² and with nearly 5.9 million inhabitants in area, the second largest, but in terms of population, the largest of the three administrative divisions between the state on the top level and the respective districts on the underlying upper level are located. Each region is represented by a Regional Administrator. The administrative capital of the Southern Region is Blantyre, with 661 444 inhabitants the second largest in the country.

Geography

The Southern region is surrounded on the west, south and east of Mozambique. In the north, bordering the Central Region and the southern foothills of Lake Malawi.

There are five agro-ecological regions in Malawi, of which there are two full and one in part in the Southern Region. The Shire Highlands, with its medium altitudes between Blantyre and Zomba and the Lower Shire, which extends southwest from Blantyre as the lowest level of Malawi along the Shire River, part of the Southern Region. The agro-ecological region that belongs only in part to the Southern region, the lake shore region of Lake Malawi, extending in all three regions of Malawi Nordsüdausdehnung.

Districts

The Southern Region was divided into thirteen districts that listed from north to south from

  • Mangochi with 803 602 inhabitants,
  • Balaka with 316 748 inhabitants,
  • Do Inga with 488 996 inhabitants,
  • Neno with 108,897 inhabitants,
  • Mwanza with 94 476 inhabitants,
  • Blantyre with a population of 338 047,
  • Zomba with 583 167 inhabitants,
  • Chiradzulu with 290 946 inhabitants,
  • Phalombe with 313 227 inhabitants,
  • Mulanje with 525 429 inhabitants,
  • Chikwawa with 438 895 inhabitants,
  • Thyolo with 587 455 inhabitants and
  • Nsanje made ​​with 238 089 inhabitants.

The two largest cities in the Southern Region are Blantyre, followed by Zomba with 87 366 inhabitants. The districts are led by a District Development Committee ( DDC) chaired by a District Commissioner. The political decision-making is decentralized in these districts and in the larger cities in so-called town or city assemblies instead, but not at the regional level.

Population

The 2008 Census determined the 5,876,784 inhabitants of the Southern region account for 45 % of the total population of Malawi represents the region with an average of 185 inhabitants per km ² the highest population density in the country as a region. 48.4 % are male and 51.6 % female, but only 47.8 % of the population is 18 years and older. The high number of children in the total population is on the one hand by the high population growth rate of 26.8 % in the years 1998-2008 and is but on the other hand also caused by the high death rate due to HIV / AIDS in the adult population. Only 47.3 % of women and 50.6 % of men have currently sufficient knowledge about HIV prevention.

53.9 % of children up to 17 years living with both parents. 20,3,7 % do not live with their biological parents, and 15.3% are orphans who have lost one or both parents.

The official languages ​​in the region are English and Chichewa.

Economy

Agricultural production in the south of the country is dominated by cotton and tobacco. In the districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje of the Lower Shire Valley, the cotton is grown preferred by small farmers. It is estimated that cotton production ensures an income on an area of just over 60,000 ha of about 120,000 households. Malawi exports up to 98 % of the cotton in a pre-processed raw form. Only a cotton mill with small capacity processes the raw material further. The government is currently trying to bring more investors to the cotton processing to Malawi.

Tobacco growing is for Malawi to be the largest source of income in 2006 there were about 375,000 small farmers from growing tobacco, enough to cover 68 % of the export earnings of the country from. Although tobacco is grown throughout the country, but the cultivation and processing has focused in recent years more and more in the Central Region. In the Southern region is tobacco preferably east of Blantyre, Mulanje grown in the district. To Blantyre around and in the Mach Inga district one looks more on peanut plantations.

In recent years, Malawi is internationally more and more interesting for mining companies. Since 2008, a French company which Chenkumbi Hills examined in the district Mach Inga on exploitable limestone deposits. In Phalombe district has, however, found phosphate. The raw material is estimated fertilizer prices to reduce by about 33 % in the country.

One of the most promising projects for energy could be the rather simple production of fuel from the oil of Jatropha trees in the coming years. This, more than two million trees were planted in the last two years. In order to reduce dependence on oil imports, Malawi since 1982 ethanol from sugar itself, the production of 11.8 million liters per year spread over the two production sites in Chikwawa, in the south of the country and near Dwangwa in Nkhotakota district in the Northern Region.

A Malawi important but somewhat controversial infrastructure project is the Shire - Zambezi Waterway. It should make navigable the Shire River from the city of Nsanje to the Zambezi and provide access to the Indian Ocean via the Zambezi by Mozambique through Malawi. The 650 million euro project was founded in 2005 on the development program New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD ) recommended by the African Union. Critics say the project, apart from the technical problems, too expensive and recommend the upgrading of the railway lines from Malawi to Nacala or Beira in Mozambique.

Smallholder Hectare Beira, Mozambique Districts of Malawi
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