In 2005 and early 2006, Malawi suffered its second serious food crisis in four years, triggered by erratic rains that reduced the national maize harvest by 25% compared to 2004 (1.7m to 1.225m mt (FEWSNET April 2005, 1)1. The agricultural marketing year in Malawi officially begins on 1 April and ends on the following 31 March, or roughly from one main annual harvest to the next. The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) initially forecast that between 4.2m and 4.6m Malawians (37–40% of the population), would need food assistance amounting to 270,000 – 414,000 mt maize equivalents, depending on food price trends. However maize prices continued to rise even after the import and delivery of humanitarian aid, a situation that led to MVAC to increase its estimate of Malawians ‘at risk’ to 5.5m (48.2% of the population) in December 2005.