Malawi had received grants of 22. 2 million U.S. dollars from the African Development Bank (ADB) and five million dollars from the World Bank.

The report from Nation Online of Malawi said on Friday the ADB assistance was to finance crop irrigation of smallholders and marketing in 19 of Malawi's 28 districts. The funds would be aimed at irrigation development and the mitigation of environmental impacts.

"The specific objective of the project is to increase productivity and income of rural households, " the bank said in a statement, adding that the program would contribute to poverty reduction and the improvement of food security in rural Malawi.

The ADB said about 76 percent of Malawi's rural population would benefit directly and indirectly from the marketing activities.

More than 900,800 people will face food shortages this year, according to the latest report from the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee.

Meanwhile, the World Bank announced on Friday that it granted an additional assistance of five million U.S. dollars for Malawi's efforts to scale up activities in malaria monitoring and evaluation.

It was an additional grant to an initial 15 million dollars that the bank approved in December, 2004 for Malawi's Health Sector Support Project. The bank said it would help Malawi manage, make decisions on, monitor and evaluate results of its national malaria program.

The World Bank hailed the program, but also pointed out that the plan still faced several challenges such as the grave shortage of human resources and the increasing resistance of malaria parasites to Sulfaxodine Pyrimethamine, the first line treatment for malaria in the impoverished southern African country.

"Malaria is the single most important public health problem in Malawi, accounting for 4 million cases annually and its direct and indirect economic costs borne by individuals, households and the government are huge," said the bank.

Storn Kabuluzi, program manager for Malawi's National Malaria Control Programme, also said on Friday that although recent studies showed malaria infection rate were stable in Malawi, it was still the country's major health concern.

Source: Xinhua