CRS Country Representative Sekai Mudonhi says the rewards to be held quarterly are a social and behaviour change intervention aimed at ensuring that communities have enough food in their households.

"This initiative will be taking place every quarter of the year so that communities from where the programme is being implemented are motivated,” disclosed Mudonhi.

The European Union in partnership with UNICEF and FAO is supporting the Government of Malawi in the implementation of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture programme through what is called Afikepo in 10 districts of the country.

In February this year, UNICEF partnered with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to implement a district-led Performance Based Incentive (PBI) Activity as a complementary objective to the Afikepo programme which has since, awarded Nkhata Bay district with K 60 million for producing sound results of the project.

Karonga has come second with a reward of K 40 million.

Said Mudonhi: "We want to ensure that there is competition districts Afikepo programme compete and understand the benefits of having nutritious food in their homes.”

Nkhata Bay district Commissioner Rogers Neba who expressed happiness on the reward, says the Afikepo programme has helped in reducing malnutrition levels in the district.

Let me applaud the communities of Nkhata Bay and officials from the district council. There was a very cordial relationship between these two sides hence achieving this far.

The prize money will be used to implement activities which some communities initiated in the district.