Malawi plans to import one million tons of corn from Europe as it seeks to feed as many as 8.4 million people facing food shortages, a government minister said. The southern African nation is looking to Europe for the imports as its neighbors, including Zambia and South Africa, produced less of the commodity due to the El Nino weather pattern that has affected the region, Agriculture Minister George Chaponda told lawmakers Wednesday in the capital, Lilongwe. Malawi expects to spend 250 billion kwacha ($353 million), the minister said. It projects a corn requirement of 1.3 million tons to feed Malawians facing food shortages through March 2017. Production of the grain declined to 2.4 million metric tons this year, the lowest in five years, from 2.8 million tons in 2014, according to Chaponda. Malawi’s total corn requirement for human consumption, seed, stock feed and industrial use is estimated at 3.2 million tons. The country of 17 million is facing a second year of falling output after the El Nino weather pattern hurt crops across much of southern Africa, where corn is the staple food. That’s prompted the government to declare a state of disaster, with the number of people going hungry expected to increase substantially.