FAO urges African govts to stop food export bans
By Gift Chanda
Wed 17 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE United Nation's food agency has urged Zambia and other African governments in sub-Saharan region to stop imposing export bans on food commodities.
Zambia, which has moved from being a maize importer to exporter after output rose to more than 2.5 million tonnes from about 600,000 tonnes just over a decade ago, has currently placed a ban on the "free export" of maize to other countries due to a drop in production.
Maize output this year fell 11 per cent to 2.5 million tonnes from 2.85 million tonnes in the previous season after poor weather and a worm infestation impacted on yields.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) country representative for Zambia George Okech said governments should not be quick to implement export bans on food commodities because they were weighing hard on those countries that were in no position to feed their people.
"As FAO, we are trying to advise governments not to panic and place export bans on food commodities when ever prices go up because when you place export bans in your country, it will affect the other country and it will go ahead and affect the other next country," Okech said in an interview.
"…the borders should be opened, there should be free trade. If governments can adopt that policy of not imposing export bans, then the sub-Saharan region will be in a better position to feed itself."
Last year, Zambia eased a supply crunch in southern Africa with its robust maize stocks.
The country exported grain to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana, Burundi and Namibia.
FAO advised Zambia, which cut a subsidy on fertiliser to 50 per cent from 75 per cent, to promote conservation farming if the country was to avoid dashing its goal of becoming a regional breadbasket.
Meanwhile, FAO on Monday handed over equipment worth K690, 000 to the ZNFU to assist the farmers' union take the lead in improving productivity among small-scale farmers.
The equipment would assist small-scale farmers preserve the environment through mechanised conservation agriculture.
Okech, who handed over the equipment to Zambian National Farmers' Union executive director Ndambo Ndambo, said conservation agriculture makes efficient use of farming inputs and significantly increases yields.
"It provides for better resilience against drought and prevents soil erosion."
The equipment comprised 12 sets of tractors, no-till planters, trailers, shellers and sprayers as well as a pickup truck.
And Ndambo said the support would enable the establishment of a nucleus of small-scale farmers that were able to provide a range of mechanised agriculture services.
"This leads to improved incomes for the service providers and more efficient production for client farmers. So it's a win-win situation for all," said Ndambo.
Labels: FAO
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We don't need GMOs to end hunger in Africa - FAO
By Kabanda Chulu
Fri 05 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
WE don't need genetically modified food to end hunger in Africa, says Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) director general Jose Graziano da Silva.
And agriculture minister Robert Sichinga says Zambia is reluctant to support and contribute money to the proposed Africa Solidarity Trust Fund for food security since the country is still struggling to meet the 10 per cent budgetary allocation requirement and facing other challenges.
Answering questions from journalists at the end of the high-level meeting of African and international leaders themed 'Renewed partnership for unified approach to end hunger in Africa by 2025 within the CAADP framework' in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Graziano da Silva said there was need to promote the right to food.
"As we promote the right to food, we should not mix bio technology with genetically modified organisms because the two are different, bio tech is a new science that uses biological processes, organisms, or systems to manufacture products intended to improve the quality of human life. Its application can result in increasing yields, prevent damage from insects and pests and reduce farming's impact on the environment," said Graziano da Silva. "So we don't need GMOs to end hunger in Africa, what we need is to empower small-scale farmers with technological tools that will make them effective. There are concerns with GMOs but it is a science that, probably, we will need in future."
On concerns that Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has failed to make positive impact since inception in 2003 and that resolutions of the meeting would just be another piece of paper, African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said progress had been made by some countries.
"Our strategies require political commitment; we need policies that should take a multifaceted approach, which is addressing challenges in growing of crops, production, processing and markets, we also need to invest in people because economies requires skilled people, we also need to invest in infrastructure, for example, if women spend longer hours fetching water, this reduces their productivity," she said. "This meeting is not a decision making body but resolutions will not become a piece of paper but will be taken to Heads of States summit for adoption, actually most of the issues are being addressed because no nation can afford not to do anything about hunger. It is a threat to development. Progress has been made with CAADP, we have seen some countries attaining and even exceeding the 10 per cent budgetary allocation and six per cent growth but we are not satisfied since several goals have not been reached."
Last year, during a regional FAO meeting held in Brazzaville, Congo, a proposal was made that a trust fund for food security in Africa and other financing mechanisms be established as a catalytic fund to existing funds.
Giving an update on the fund, FAO deputy general Helena Semedo said FAO would head the steering committee that would involve the AU Commission to provide guidance.
"The fund will help improve productivity, promote climate resilience, and contribute to knowledge promotion and strengthening south-south cooperation. So far, a US$30 million donation was made by Equatorial Guinea, and pledges have been made by Angola, Gabon and Civil Society consortium and the private sector from Congo, DR and Cameroon," said Semedo. "Solidarity among African countries is needed and hunger will be eliminated through a unified approach but we know the fund will not be enough so countries should also look at domestic financing."
But Sichinga said clear guidelines on how the trust fund would be used have not been presented to delegates.
"We have just developed the national agriculture investment plan and it has shown a 50 per cent financing gap on intended projects, and many countries including Zambia are failing to meet CAADP requirement of 10 per cent agricultural budget so how are they going to contribute to this fund?" asked Sichinga. "The guidelines are not clear about this fund and I will have difficulties to convince my government to have additional funds for this trust when there are projects like roads and other infrastructure needed to boost agriculture. We are not rejecting the contributions but there is no concept paper to present to our governments so we need to discuss this further."
In response, Semedo said the fund would be an addition to existing funds.
"This is just a catalytic fund, it is up to AU and NEPAD to decide how to use the funds," she said.
Labels: FAO, GMOS, JOSE GRAZIANO DA SILVA
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Zambia signs conservation farming agreement
By Henry Sinyangwe
Thu 20 June 2013, 14:00 CAT
ZAMBIA has signed a four-year conservation agriculture agreement with the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation aimed at increasing crop production.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative to Zambia George Okech said conservation agriculture approach had become a preferred means of promoting agriculturein the rural parts of Zambia.
"The CA approach has become a preferred means of promoting agriculture development for 40 per cent of rural population in Zambia who depend primarily on agriculture for survival. It saves labour, makes efficient use of inputs, produces higher yields and is environmentally friendly. It also provides better resilience against floods and prevents soil erosion," Okech said.
Soil degradation, high input prices, poor produce markets and poor market prices are some of the challenges the project will address.
According to a statement, the project would operate in three districts and work with both extension workers and progressive farmers to target 315,000 beneficiaries.
EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs said Zambia had made great progress in developing its agriculture and mining sectors.
"Yet despite its remarkable economic growth, Zambia is still one of the most unequal countries in the world. I hope that the agreement will help make sure that…the country's growth benefits the whole population, not just a few," he said.
Piebalgs also signed the contracts for the rehabilitation of Great East Road at a cost of EUR118 million and a financing agreement for support to non-state actors worth EUR5.5 million.
Labels: CONSERVATION FARMING, FAO
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Conservation agriculture to boost food security
Friday, 02 March 2012 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
GOVERNEMNT with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa has launched the
Conservation Agriculture Up-scaling Framework for Zimbabwe. The framework seeks to map the most effective way of promoting the technology to boost food security and well being of local farmers.
Improvement in crop productivity derived from implementing conservation agriculture will not only impact at household level but go even further and contribute to the national efforts of achieving the Millennium Development Goals of Eradicating Extreme Hunger and Poverty.
Officially launching the framework, Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation Development permanent secretary, Mr Ngoni Masoka said in recognition of the production constraints being faced by the farming community, the ministry adopted conservation agriculture as one of the sustainable technologies to improve productivity.
“Conservation agriculture addresses the problem of low erratic rainfall through the use of technologies that reduce water losses and increase infiltration and low soil nutrient status by reducing top soil loss and increasing soil carbon and nitrogen through the use of organic soil cover and legume in rotations and interactions,” he said.
Mr Masoka said conservation agriculture has been identified as having the potential to reduce the impact of many factors that constrain agricultural production.
However, like any new technology, it needs to be introduced in an appropriate manner to increase its uptake among farmers and enhance its impact.
“Promoting a technology without any specific guidelines may result in conflicting messages getting to the farmer, thereby reducing the benefits that the farmers can derive from the technology,” he said.
Mr Masoka urged all stakeholders attending the launch to seriously consider the guidelines provided in the framework and incorporate them into their work plans and daily activities to boost food production and attaining environmental sustainability.
The number of local farmers practicing conservation agriculture has increased tremendously from just over 5 000 in 2003/4 season to over 350 000 farmers covering an area approximately 150 000 hectares during the 2011/2 season. Mr Masoka said 130 000 of these farmers were implementing conservation agriculture without any input support.
“This implies that our efforts are bearing fruit and farmers are realising the benefits of this technology,” he said.
Zimbabwe targets to get 500 000 farmers implementing conservation agriculture over 250 000 hectares by 2015.
Speaking at the same function, FAO Mr Martin Ager said in June 2010, Government, FAO and Comesa brought together a distinguished group of experts to come up with the CA Up-scaling framework document.
The launch of the framework, he said, was in line with developments across Southern Africa based on the work of a number of different governments and other stakeholders.
Labels: COMESA, CONSERVATION FARMING, FAO
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Maize demand outstrips supply
Monday, 28 March 2011 20:30
By Obert Chifamba
IN 2008, Zimbabwe harvested less than 500 000 tonnes of maize. Two years down the line, maize production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010 to 1,27 and 1,35 million tonnes respectively.
According to a FAO/WFP statement, Zimbabwe has 1,66 million tonnes of cereals available, against a total needs forecast of 2,09 million tonnes in the marketing year 2010/11 (April/ March).
"This leaves a 428 000 tonne shortfall," Liliana Balbi, the team leader of the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System, said.
What is however, notable is the increase in maize production that is largely attributed to a subsidised Government credit system for far-mers as well as an agricultural input assistance programme by the government, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations.
These are credited with distributing nearly 140 000 tonnes of fertiliser and top dressing, and 22 373 tonnes of maize seed, to more than 700 000 households.
The 1,8 million hectares planted to maize this year was a 30-year historical high and represents a 20 percent increase from the previous year.
Despite the aforementioned increase in yields and hectarage, the country still does not have enough for all citizens making it vital to up productivity.
However, a significant chunk of land under cultivation was not mirrored in the production levels, which had only increased seven percent from the previous year.
The average (hectare) yield of maize has however, declined for the past 15 years.
The FAO/WFP report noted that national maize yields had decreased to 0,75 tonnes/ha, from 0,82 tonnes/ha recorded the last season.
Yields decreased in all farming sectors, with the exception of commercial farms, which recorded an average increase of 6 percent over the previous season.
Nationally, yields are just below the 10-year average (2000-2010) of 0,87 tonnes/ha and likewise, millet and sorghum yields have also fallen.
Despite the introduction of improved maize hybrids, their ready adoption by the farmers has been hindered by low producer prices, inefficient marketing arrangements and above all, the inability of producers to obtain regular supplies of fertilisers at economic prices.
Where the new and improved varieties have been adopted, ascending yields have been recorded and producers have gone beyond the usual 2 tonnes per hectare that is common with most farmers.
The potential for output growth has naturally been hindered by marketing difficulties and recurrent shortages of basic agricultural inputs like seed and fertilisers while prices of fertilisers have remained very high for farmers to manage.
Zimbabwe's maize crop, just like in any country in southern Africa, is vulnerable to drought and in the absence of government support, domestic maize production is therefore not competitive versus the imports that come in to fill the perceived deficits.
But with mitigating factors in place, some of which include reverting to irrigation and rolling out comprehensive support programmes, yields of maize can easily change for the better regardless of the incidence of a dry spell somewhere in the course of the season.
Malawi has done very well raising its yields from less than 2 million tonnes just two seasons ago to 3,5 million tonnes this year.
According to a FAO/WFP statement, Zimbabwe has 1,66 million tonnes of cereals available, against a total needs forecast of 2,09 million tonnes in the marketing year 2010/11 (April/March).
According to a FAO/WFP statement, Zimbabwe has 1,66 million tonnes of cereals available, against a total needs forecast of 2,09 million tonnes in the marketing year 2010/11 (April/March).
The Malawians have rolled out a comprehensive input scheme of highly subsidised fertilisers to enable every smallholder farmers to produce at least half a hectare of maize to boost national food security.
There are even indications that Malawi intends to extend the scheme to cover a hectare of maize for each farmer in the near future.
Malawi has supported a larger number of farmers and covered a correspondingly large area with maize, which has translated into the current high yields that have also made it possible for the country to export surplus.
Zimbabwe is looking at ways of mitigating the impact of the recurrent mid-season droughts that have dented yields over the past few years.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made recently conceded that the sector was at the mercy of the harsh climatic changes taking place globally, which makes it imperative for more irrigation systems to be developed.
"Irrigation is a must. We have to continue to produce adequate seed and leave no room for GMO imports.
"It is important that we focus on irrigation development and input supply.
"We are currently working on developing our irrigation system with help from our friends while focussing on more research on breeding drought resistant breeds and training our human resources to approach production matters technically and scientifically," said Minister Made.
Minister Made also emphasised the need to have a very clear department of irrigation backed by very clear field supervision of staff.
We must also adopt ways of conserving all the water that is in our reservoirs so that it is harnessed for irrigation and boost yields in the event of poor seasons," he said.
"The Department of Agricultural Engineering must also be on the ground to repair machinery like tractors, combine harvesters and other pieces of equipment while training the farmers as well.
"This will guarantee effective use of implements that translates into higher yields too," he added.
On the other hand, Government should mobilise lines of credit for A2 farmers to boost their capacity as well, said Minister Made.
Similarly, Agritex principal director Mr Joseph Gondo added that the long term solution to drought problems was to develop irrigation infrastructure to capacitate farmers to save their crops in the event of dry spells coming in the middle of a season.
"On the other hand, the short-term strategy involves adopting agronomic strategies that include timely planting, selection of short season varieties and staggering the ages of the planted crop to make sure they emerge and grow at different times," said Mr Gondo.
It is vital, resources permitting for the country to increase the inputs assistance from the current one bag of Compound D, one of Ammonium Nitrate and a 10kg pack of seed to also increase the area under maize.
"This time around more than 4 500 households benefited from the various input schemes rolled out by Government and other players in the agricultural sector yet we have millions of smallholder farmers who all need to take part in the fight against food insecurity," commented Mr Gondo.
The other possible route may involve the Government encouraging inputs suppliers to look into other facilities and make arrangements with banks, farmers organisations and fine-tuning the supply chain while guaranteeing repayment of loans, explained Mr Gondo.
The absence of lines of credit remains agriculture's biggest undoing as financial institutions can only afford to give short-term loans, which are not possible with agriculture as it requires long term financing before the product can generate some revenue after marketing.
"One other way Zimbabwe can also take care of some of the smallholder farmers' problems is for Government to clearly define a contract policy that protects both the farmer and the contractor - two parties that have been at each other's throat every time over breaching of terms," Mr Gondo said.
Zimbabwe is undertaking a massive mechanisation drive of the agricultural sector and this will also include revamping existing irrigation infrastructure and establishing new systems as well.
The country is hugely dependent on rain-fed agriculture.
It is however, unfortunate that there is no significant irrigation infrastructure at the moment especially for the majority of smallholder far-mers to turn to when the seasons turn bad.
With the current climate changes and cyclic droughts that have affected Zimbabwe for years, it is vital to create assets such as small-scale irrigation infrastructure, repair the worst affected water reservoirs like dams, rivers through environmentally friendly methods like re-afforestation.
This will help to reduce the amount of run-off that later translates into erosion and conserve the soil to encourage crop production and mitigate the impact of drought and related shocks.
Labels: FAO, GMO, IRRIGATION, JOSEPH MADE, MAIZE
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Land reform a success: survey
Saturday, 05 February 2011 23:26 Agriculture
By Tinashe Farawo
THE Government has achieved its objective of empowering indigenous Zimbabweans through the land reform programme as two-thirds of the beneficiaries are ordinary citizens, a new study has revealed.
The research, conducted by the African Institute for Agrarian Studies and led by Professor Sam Moyo, has found that most beneficiaries were from rural farming backgrounds and unemployed. It also says the newly resettled farmers continue to improve despite experiencing financial constraints.
In the research report, Prof Moyo dismisses assertions that the programme had seen an increase in causal labour, saying a large proportion of maize and cotton produced in recent years originated from newly resettled farmers as confirmed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Food Programme Report of 2009.
Part of the report reads: “The results of the survey indicate that there is scant evidence to support most of the commonly held assertions regarding the outcome of the fast-track land reform process in terms of who gained access to land, their security of tenure and the failure to realise meaningful rural social reproduction.
“Only about 15 percent of the land beneficiaries could be considered ‘elites’, including high-level employees and businesspeople who are connected to Government and the ruling Zanu-PF.
“By far, the largest number of beneficiaries are people who have a relatively low social status and limited political or financial (commercial) connections, although some of these may have important local connections and influence.
“Most of the beneficiaries were from rural farming backgrounds (mainly in communal areas and as farm workers), while many of the urban beneficiaries are working people and from among the unemployed.”
The study, which is said to be the only extensive survey of six districts across six provinces in most of the agro-ecological regions, shows that land tenure insecurity is not a major problem in resettlement areas.
It also emerged during the survey that inadequate input supply has hampered production in recent years.
“The majority (of new farmers) were resettled from neighbouring rural settings, to which many remain connected.
“A much lower proportion of the land beneficiaries, than is often alleged, remains in formal employment and has access to State resources, given also that the job market has been deteriorating and that there has been inadequate public input supply and financial support.
“Land tenure insecurity is not commonly cited as a problem in the newly redistributed areas, as only 18 percent of the beneficiaries cite either land conflicts, including their lack of ‘title’ and fear of eviction as factors which limit their social reproduction and/or production. Instead, crop inputs by most land beneficiaries are found to be the main constraint to agricultural production.”
In an interview last week, University of Edinburgh (Scotland) PhD candidate and researcher Mr Grasian Mkodzongi said the fast-track land reform programme was successful.
He, however, cited inadequate funding as a major impediment to increased yields.
“The land reform programme was, to a large extent, successful and it’s not true that it only benefited the well-connected,” he said.
“It also benefited poor people from rural areas and the unemployed.”
Last year a Professorial Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex University in the United Kingdom, Professor Ian Scoones, also published a study on the programme, declaring it a success.
“There has been a lot of distortion and misleading facts.
“Debates have stuck in emotional and ideological positions around land,” he said.
Prof Scoones said some crops grown by small-scale farmers since the beginning of the reforms had increased tremendously.
Small grain production went up by 163 percent, edible dry bean production by a whopping 282 percent and cotton by 13 percent.
“The agricultural sector has been transformed and there are problems but it has certainly not collapsed,” he said.
Of the 400 resettled farmers interviewed during the research, only 5 percent could be categorised as elites, he added. “Yes, there have been problems. We would not deny that has been part of the story, but it’s not the whole story,” he said.
“We have to appreciate both the successes and failures and not to take a misleadingly one-sided perspective on it all.
“Sometimes this is reported in very respectable newspapers in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe, but this is simply not supported by facts on the ground. Sure, there are elites who have benefited, but, overall and certainly from our study, we found that about two-thirds of the beneficiaries were mostly poor people from rural areas.”
Labels: FAO, LAND REFORM, SAM MOYO
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FAO urges quick export of excess maize
By Joseph Mwenda
Wed 03 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
FAO country representative Noureddin Mona has advised the government to quickly export excess maize before the rainy season intensifies. Dr Mona observed that the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) did not have enough capacity to secure the record bumper harvest from being damaged.
“Another way of managing the safe storage of the huge harvest is to quickly find markets to sell off the surplus crop, in order to remain with quantities which can easily be stored within the existing storage facilities,” he said.
Dr Mona further noted that the existing storage facilities under FRA were not in good shape and advised the government to consider rehabilitating them as a long-term measure.
“Government, through FRA, has in terms of numbers, reasonably a good number of storage facilities. However, most of them are not in a good state to safely store the crops. Therefore, government, as a long-term measure, should continue rehabilitating and expanding the existing storage facilities.”
He advised the FRA to quickly negotiate for private storage facilities, especially in areas where tarpaulins had not yet been purchased in order to protect the crops from being damaged by the rains.
“The government, in addition to its own storage facilities, should also consider negotiating or arranging for the use of private storage facilities in order to accommodate this year’s unprecedented bumper harvest,” he said.
Dr Mona further said the government had not approached FAO for assistance as regards means of storing this year’s harvest. Zambia has recorded 2.8 million metric tonnes of maize this year, up from 1.8 million recorded last season.
Labels: FAO, MAIZE, NOUREDDIN MONA
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Gukurahundi storm envoy posted to SA
by Staff Reporter
24/07/2010 00:00:00
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has named controversial envoy Phelekezela Mphoko - who once said the Gukurahundi atrocities were a Western conspiracy – as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa. Prior to his redeployment, Mphoko was the country’s ambassador to Russia.
He replaces Simon Khaya Moyo who has since moved to Harare to work full-time for Zanu PF after being elected the party’s national chairman. Secretary for foreign affairs Joey Bimba confirmed the appointment which came as part of a redeployment of some six heads of Zimbabwe’s missions abroad.
Mphoko, a keen photographer who is said to have close links with the country’s intelligence services, caused a stir while posted to Botswana when he claimed, without elaborating, that the Gukurahundi atrocities were a ‘Western conspiracy’.
He was speaking during a panel discussion on Zimbabwe in 2009 where he also barracked the discussants who included attorney Beatrice Mtetwa, calling them sell-outs and accusing them of misrepresenting the situation in the country.
Meanwhile his appointment to the key South Africa posting could further strain the frosty working relationship between the parties in the coalition government.
There had been considerable jockeying for the post between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations with the former opposition parties claiming that the under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) they were supposed to fill any diplomatic positions that became vacant.
However analysts insisted it was unlikely Zanu PF would give-up the South Africa mission to the MDCs because of the crucial role that country plays in Zimbabwe’s political and economic affairs.
Meanwhile the reassignments also saw Zimbabwe’s permanent representative to the United Nations Boniface Chidyausiku being recalled to Harare. He will be replaced by Chitsaka Chipaziwa, who represented the country to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland.
James Manzou leaves his posting in Angola to take up the Geneva mission while the country’s former ambassador to Australia, Stephen Cletus Chiketa replaces Mary Mubi in Sweden.
Mubi was redeployed to Italy where she will also represent Zimbabwe at the Food and Agriculture Organization, which is headquartered in the capital, Rome.
Labels: AMBASSADOR, FAO, GUKURAHUNDI, PHELEKEZELA MPHOKO
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FAO launches 2nd phase of cassava processing
By Mutale Kapekele
Wed 03 Feb. 2010, 04:01 CAT
THE second phase of the US $4.5 million small-scale cassava processing and vertical integration of the cassava sub-sector in southern and eastern Africa was yesterday launched in Lusaka under the supervision of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
During the launch of the project, which is funded by the Common Fund for commodities (CAF), Adam Prakash from the FAO secretariat in Rome, said the international market was now placing importance on cassava as an income generating crop.
Prakash said cassava was no longer just a food security safeguard for some countries but a crop that could compete effectively on the international market.
“The international community is placing great importance on cassava,” Prakash said. “This is an advantage for countries producing cassava and where there is comparative advantage, use it. Cassava is not susceptible to international food prices because it is thinly traded making it not just a food security safeguard but also an income generating crop with huge potential.”
He said FAO was predicting a rise in food prices and urged countries in the region to consider substituting crops like wheat for cassava as a safeguard.
“If you want to trade in crops like wheat internationally, you need a lot of foreign exchange but for cassava, you can use the local currency because most of the market is here and save that foreign exchange,” he said. “We need to begin to substitute cassava for wheat and other cash crops and convince consumers that it is also just as good. FAO deems cassava as an important crop for small holders who can become commercial with a bit of effort.”
Earlier, Zambia Agricultural Research institute (ZARI) director Dr Watson Mwale called for improvements in processing technologies of cassava.
“In the first phase of the project, from 2003 to 2007, some simple marketing-oriented technologies were introduced,” said Dr Mwale. “We need to make more improvements to allow farmers transform fresh cassava, which is highly perishable into stable market grade intermediate products such as chips or high quality cassava flour.”
Labels: CASSAVA, FAO
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Speech at the UN World Food Summit
President Mugabe - Full speech at the United Nations World Food Summit in Rome, Italy
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:39:00 +0000
THE following transcript is a full speech given by President Robert Mugabe at the United Nations World Food Summit in Rome, Italy on the 16-18 November, 2009.
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Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
Your Excellency, Mr Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the .. United Nations,
Your Excellency, Dr Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Heads of Specialised Agencies of the United Nations, £S Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades and Friends.
At the first World Food Summit in 1996, we set ourselves the goal of reducing, by the year 2015, the number of food insecure people in the world by half. Regrettably, nearly 13 years later, that number has actually increased to an estimated 1 billion, the majority of whom are in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our summit should thus honestly and critically examine the root causes of this food insecurity in many parts of the world and lead us to adopt concrete proposals for resolving them. The factors militating against food security in developing countries include the negative impact of climate change; scarcity of or inaccessibility to land; the rising costs of agricultural inputs; lack of resources to finance farming activities; the trade-distorting agricultural subsidies paid by the industrialised countries to their farmers, and poor agricultural support infrastructure. Add to this, denial of market access to agricultural products from developing countries and that completes the host of factors which undermine crop production, in our countries.
Of these challenges, climate change has had the most devastating impact especially in Africa. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, for the frequency and severity of droughts and floods intensified over the last ten years, undermining the region's ability to attain the Millennium Development Goals and the targets of the 1996 World Food Summit. Population growth, urbanisation, pre- and post- harvest losses and problems of food hygiene also affect the quality and safety of food supplies in developing countries.
We in Zimbabwe have come to realize that besides adverse nature and ruinous agricultural policies of powerful nations, there is also the challenge of punitive policies of certain countries whose interests stand opposed to our quest for the equity and justice of our land reforms. We face very hostile interventions by these states which have imposed unilateral sanctions on us. This has had a negative impact on our farmers who, according to our neo-colonialist enemies, must fail so as to damn the land reforms we have undertaken. We have also seen a wish to make us dependent on food imports as opposed to enhancing our own capacity for production
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My country's agricultural policy objective is primarily to ensure national and household food security mainly though our own efforts of production. Zimbabwe, like most Southern African countries, depends on rain-fed agriculture, which has hampered economic development due to the unreliability of rainfall for sustained crop production. To mitigate the country's vulnerability to the vagaries of the weather, Zimbabwe has an ongoing programme of dam construction across the country to harness water and develop reliable water sources. This increase in the number and capacity of dams has appreciably enhanced the availability of water resources for irrigation development. With adequate levels of support, Zimbabwe has the potential to increase the land under irrigation from the present 153 000 to 453 000 hectares.
Besides the water shortages induced by climate change, Zimbabwe has also been affected by shortages of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agricultural chemicals. We have come to realize that our quest for food security is tied to investment in industrial projects that focus on inputs production.
Further, Government continues to support the agriculture sector through a number of credit schemes, including concessionary loans for working capital, and the procurement of equipment and machinery. To buttress these schemes, the government has also introduced a farm mechanisation programme targeting both smallholder and commercial farming sectors. But we remain keenly aware that the mechanisation programme cannot be complete if it does not yield the capacity to enable us to export value-added products.
We are grateful for the support we have received from the SADC region, which provided seeds and fertilisers through the SADC Agricultural Inputs Support Initiative. With this support from SADC, the country experienced a dramatic 75 per cent increase in maize production this year. For the 2009/2010 season, we have received support from various international cooperating partners who provided input packs through the Small Holder Emergency Support Programme which is coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and is expected to reach over 600 000 households. Zimbabwe is grateful for this support.
The recent energy crisis has once again brought the importance of developing alternative sources of energy to the fore. Combined with the power outages we experienced last year as a result of the energy deficit in the SADC region, the rise in oil prices has had a negative impact on our farming activities. As a result, we have since 2004, given priority to the development of bio-energy, with particular emphasis on diesel and ethanol To avoid the negative effects of using maize as a bio-fuel feedstock, our project uses jatropha seed and cane. The use of jatropha seed as feedstock in the bio diesel programme has expanded the market for the jatropha seed, thus generating incomes for communities, mainly those in rural areas. Being a crop that thrives on marginally productive soils, jatropha does not pose any threat to the country's staple maize crop or other cereals in terms of competition for land.
Mr Chairman,
Despite the decline in the HIV prevalence rate in the 15-49 year age-group to 13,7 per cent, Zimbabwe remains concerned is still high because the people most affected by the pandemic comprise in the main the most economically productive group m society. In response to the effects of the epidemic on the agricultural sector, my government has adopted the Zimbabwe Agricultural Sector Strategy on HIV and AIDS whose main objective is to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, although hampered at the moment by resource constraints.
Zimbabwe has made good progress under the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme Frame (AADP), the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, and the 2003 Maputo Declaration on allocating at least 10 per cent of budget to agriculture. Zimbabwe will not allow land alienation from the indigenous farmers by a new class of imported would-be land owners as this would negate our people-centred land policy and create new bitter land conflicts.
We welcome the decision taken at the food security session held on the sidelines of the G8 Summit m L'Aquila, Italy, on 10 July this year, to mobilize US$20 billion support for sustainable agricultural development over the next three years. We hope the fund will not be politicised, and will be directed solely towards assisting developing countries in developing countries in developing effective agricultural adaptation strategies.. Besides the need for increased investment in agriculture, we wish to appeal for unwavering political commitment to the Doha Round of trade negotiations so that it can lead to sustainable and equitable reform of policies governing global trade in agricultural commodities.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate the call for urgent and substantial increases in investment in agriculture in developing countries. It is also critical that agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilisers and chemicals be made easily available to small scale farmers, especially women and young people. Finally, may western countries please remove their illegal and inhuman sanctions on my country and its people!
I thank you.
Source: www.fao.org November 17 2009 (transcribed from the PDF)
Labels: FAO, MUGABE, SPEECHES, UN WORLD FOOD SUMMIT
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Makumbe: Anti-Mugabe agenda gone awry
Philip Murombedzi
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:38:00 +0000
RECENT comments by Dr John Makumbe in response to President Mugabe's speech at the Food And Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) World Food summit in Rome are embarassing to say the least. For a learned man, the ignorance exposed was astounding. President Mugabe criticised Western countries at the summit for their ruinous agricultural practices at the world trading stage.
Dr Makumbe said that President Mugabe “has gallivanted around the world attending U.N. conferences and of course enjoying the food there when a lot of his people here are scratching the bottom of the barrel”.
He added: “It is a sanctions-busting maneuver. It's a shopping trip, taking advantage of the U.N. to actually get into Europe.”
This is ignorance at the highest level for a man of his supposed stature. This man is an embarassment. His attempts at politicising everything smack of ignorance, to say the least.
He should be reminded that the world trading system is skewed in favour of the West. This is a position accepted, not just by Zimbabwe, but by the rest of the developing world.
President Mugabe is not the only leader who expressed these sentiments. Makumbe should read about negotiations at the World Trade Organisation relating to agriculture and how these negotiations have failed over the wester subsidy issue.
Makumbe should be reminded that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only leader from the G8 industrialised countries to be among the 60 heads of state and governments who attend the summit.
The United States, which is the world's biggest food aid donor, sent the acting head of the US Agency for International Development, while Britain sent two junior ministers.
Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, laid out the sobering statistic as he kicked off the three-day summit.
"Today, more than 1 billion people are hungry," he told the assembled leaders. Six million children die of hunger every year, 17000 every day, he said.
"We must craft a single global vision ... to produce real results for people in real need," Ban told at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI also addressed ministers, calling for an end to the "greed" of financial speculation on food prices.
Jacques Diouf, the head of the UN food agency, has urged governments to invest $44 billion a year to end chronic hunger suffered by 1.02 billion people and achieve “food security.” World hunger has continued to rise even with food prices falling from their peaks of last year, which coincided with FAO’s previous summit where donors pledged $11 billion in aid.
Jacques Diouf says he is not satisfied with the final declaration of the UN world food summit in Rome. Mr Diouf criticised the declaration - which vowed "urgent action" to boost food security - for not including exact targets to reduce hunger.
The summit opened with the leaders adopting a declaration in which they renewed their commitment to eradicate hunger. They promised to do so by promoting investment, reversing the decline in funding for agriculture and tackling the effect of global warming on food security.
But the final declaration includes only a general promise to pour more money into agricultural aid, with no target or time frame for action.
The summit also rejected a call by the UN to commit £26bn per year to develop agriculture in developing countries. The UN warned that if more land is not used for food production, 370 million people could face famine by 2050.
"There can be no food security without climate security…by 2050 our planet may be the home of 9.1 billion people... by 2050 we know we will need to grow 70 percent more food, yet weather is becoming more extreme and more unpredictable…this week's food security summit and next month's climate change meeting in Copenhagen must craft a single global vision" Ban told at the summit.
The United Nations seeks pledge from the public as well, having launched an online appeal for individual donations to fight hunger. The World Food Program's (WFT) "Billion for a Billion" campaign aims to reach 1 billion individuals.
"If a billion Internet users donate a dollar or a euro a week, we can transform the lives of a billion hungry people across the world," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP.
President Mugabe attracted the media attention.
"We face very hostile interventions by these states which have imposed unilateral sanctions on us," he said.
"This has had a negative impact on our farmers, who, according to our neocolonialist enemies, must fail so as to damn the land reforms we have undertaken."
Academics like Dr Makumbe obviously should know such issues. Unfortunately, they are blinded by the western anti-Mugabe lobby which clouds their judgment,
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*Philip Murombedzi is the editor of the Zimbabwe Guardian. He can be reached via: philipmurombedzi@yahoo.com
Labels: FAO, JACQUES DIOUF, JOHN MAKUMBE, MUGABE
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Govt launches inputs subsidy
Agriculture Reporter
Government has established a farming inputs subsidy scheme that will see a 50kg bag of fertilizer selling for US$7 while maize and sorghum seed will both be available at less than US$1 per kg.
The subsidy will benefit communal,
A1,
old resettlement and
small-scale farmers who did not get any inputs under the Government and Food and Agriculture Organisation-run support scheme.
However, limits will be placed on the quantities an individual can buy.
Grain Marketing Board communications manager Mrs Muriel Zemura said the subsidised inputs were already available at their countrywide depot network.
"Farmers under Category A are communal and they will buy a maximum of 50kg of Compound D and ammonium nitrate fertilizers and 10kg of maize seed or 5kg of sorghum seed," she said.
Category B covers of A1, old resettlement and small-scale farmers who will buy a maximum of 150kg of compound D, 100kg of ammonium nitrate, and 20kg of maize seed or 5kg of sorghum seed at the subsidised prices.
Mrs Zemura said the 50kg bag of fertilizer costs US$7, maize seed had been pegged at 52 US cents a kg, with sorghum seed going for 30 US cents a kg.
It is understood that the subsidy came into being after protracted inter-ministerial negotiations over the past weeks.
Sources at the weekend said the Ministry of Agriculture had "fought a huge battle to get Treasury to release the money for the subsidy".
The sources said the matter was finalised last week following a meeting between Agriculture Minister Joseph Made and Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
The Government-FAO Smallholder Emergency Support Programme brings together 16 donors and 35 non-governmental organisations.
Of the 1 301 988 national communal households, 691 686 households are to receive inputs in the form of seeds, fertilizers and extension assistance from the 35 organisations who received funding from donors.
Distribution of the inputs under the FAO programme is underway in most parts of the country.
Committees at national, provincial, district and ward/village level will oversee the distribution of inputs.
Targeted households include those headed by children, women, the elderly, the disabled or the chronically-ill in communal and old resettlement areas.
US$70 million was raised towards this end out of a targeted US$142,52 million.
Coverage of the programme in provinces ranges from 41 percent to 65 percent while the national average is 53 percent.
The 2009/10 summer cropping season has also seen the Government mobilising US$210 million for inputs.
Meanwhile, a local seed producer has said it has dispatched seed to GMB depots under Government’s US$210 million scheme.
Pioneer Seeds national sales manager Mr Manasa David Makasi said his company had sent 2 121 tonnes of maize seed to GMB depots in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Midlands and Masvingo provinces.
"We want to ensure that farmers get the correct varieties for their agro-ecological regions," he said.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, FAO
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World hunger crisis is imminent, warns FAO
By Kabanda Chulu
Fri 13 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT
FOOD and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) director general Jacques Diouf yesterday warned that a world hunger crisis is imminent due to lack of concrete plans of action by several countries in addressing droughts and changes in weather patterns.
And Diouf has challenged countries to consider looking at small-scale farmers as capital and not as burdens when allocating resources in the national budget.
During a video tele-conference in Lusaka ahead of next Monday’s world summit on food security themed ‘Hunger summit’ to be held in Rome, Italy, Diouf said there was need to take urgent action against hunger which was afflicting over one billion people around the world.
He said the high interest on global economic and food crisis that dominated headlines last year seemed to be fading away due to the rise in other pressing issues on the international agenda.
“Despite good harvests in 2009, many poor countries are still experiencing higher food prices which show that ending hunger is utopian and a daunting task but we can end hunger and leaders should be encouraged to take practical measures,” Diouf said.
“We have more than one billion reasons to end hunger and the one billion figures for those who are hungry can rise since it is compounded by diseases and other factors hence the global hunger crisis should not be forgotten and it will emerge anytime due to lack of concrete plans of actions in addressing droughts and changes in weather patterns.”
He said the figure of one billion people facing hunger today presents the seriousness of the situation.
“Where there is a will there is always a way and supporting small scale farmers should be the first step since these farmers are the most efficient and effective in ending hunger and we should view small- scale farmers as our capital and not our burden because they are capable of wiping hunger from the earth considering their huge figure of over two billion people out of the global population of about six billion,” said Diouf.
Labels: FAO, HUNGER, JACQUES DIOUF
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FAO injects US$335 000 into cassava project
Business Reporter
THE Food and Agriculture Organisation has injected US$335 000 into a cassava project that is currently running in the Mutasa and Makoni districts of Manicaland. National project co-ordinator, who is also a Root and Tuber Crop Extension Specialist with Agritex Ms Sibongile Mangena said the project, that would be running for 22 months, was launched in April this year and would wind up in January 2010.
"The overriding principle of the project is the participation of women and the marginalised communities in meeting the goals of poverty eradication, food security, gender equity and equality as conceptualised in the context of the Millennium Development Goals," she said.
Ms Mangena explained the project was in support of Outcome 6 of the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF, 2007-2011) that advocates improved food security and sustainable management of natural resources.
She explained that the national food policy had always focussed on maize as the staple crop to address food security but in recent years the country had been exposed to recurrent droughts resulting in serious food shortages that were also attributed to too much reliance on one staple crop.
Said Ms Mangena: "While maize remains prominent in meeting human and livestock consumption needs and in the manufacture of agro-industrial products like starch, it is vital to have crop diversification especially for the low income and vulnerable households that can not mobilise adequate agricultural inputs."
Additionally Ms Mangena explained that maize production had been on the decline over the years averaging less than 0,8 tonnes per hectare in the last 10 years.
"Farmers have been experiencing low yields against a background of rising costs of agricultural inputs especially fertilisers, seed and chemicals hence the need for the adoption of a safety net, the cassava project," she observed.
She said this was possible through the adoption of low input crops like cassava that had the capacity to perform better in marginal areas to compliment maize.
The promotion of smallholder cassava production and processing at household and community level would raise incomes while industries including confectionery production, livestock feeds and breweries had shown interest in cassava and even supported research on the crop, Ms Mangena further explained.
"Cassava is a an important food crop that can support household food requirements with low production costs and can be grown easily in association with other crops and remains available for a considerable period of the year," said Ms Mangena.
The Government has engaged FAO for technical and capital assistance in the pilot project in the two Manicaland districts while departments like Agritex, Agricultural Research and Development, Agricultural Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation and Community Development will also be involved.
The project will upon an evaluation of its success in the two districts be spread to other parts of the country. It is currently running in 20 wards with 10 coming from each of the two districts involved.
Labels: CASSAVA, FAO, MAIZE
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Zim farmers to receive $109m donor funding
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Saturday, October 03, 2009 5:38:23 PM
ZIMBABWEAN farmers have won a collective US$109 million from donors in efforts aimed at helping the country reap over two million metric tonnes of cereal during the 2009/10 season.
The funding comprises US $74 million announced by the World Bank, US $20 million by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US $15 million extended by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last week.
USAID and Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe on Wednesday signed an agreement that would enable the bank to expand its lending by US $20 million over five years.
The programme, made possible under USAID’s Development Credit Authority, is targeted at the agricultural sector and will allow the bank to increase the number of loans directly to farmers and enterprises that can provide inputs and technical assistance to small holder farmers with the ultimate objective of increasing productivity and production.
“The credit authority is being established as one of several assistance programmes, above and beyond US humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, which have come about because of President Obama’s commitment to provide agricultural and other assistance to the people of Zimbabwe. President Obama made this commitment to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during the prime minister’s June 2009 visit to Washington DC. The assistance demonstrates the will of the American people to assist Zimbabwe to restore its once vibrant agricultural sector,” said US Embassy chargé d’affaires Donald Petterson at the signing ceremony.
USAID director Karen Freeman also announced that her organization, through the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, would provide approximately 13,000 vulnerable households with seeds and fertiliser for the coming agricultural season through US $1.7 million in funding to FAO and NGOs.
The World Bank on Wednesday also announced a donation of US $74 million to help poor farmers in Zimbabwe.
World Bank senior agricultural economist David Rohrbach said the money would benefit 700,000 families, helping to buy seeds, fertilisers and other agricultural equipment for the coming harvest.
The money will be channelled through non-governmental organisations involved in the agricultural and humanitarian sectors.
Last week, FAO said it would give about 176,000 vulnerable Zimbabwean farmers seeds and fertilisers for the coming farming season.
FAO's Emergency Coordinator in Zimbabwe Jean-Claude Urvoy said the US $15 million scheme, which is being done in conjunction with the European Union, could possibly double food production this season compared to the previous season when the country reaped 1.2 million metric tonnes.
A decade of economic crisis coupled with intermittent droughts, lack of fuel, tools, seeds and fertilizers has over the years diminished agricultural production.
Others however, blame poor production on seizure of farms from commercial white farmers for distribution to inexperienced indigenous farmers who neither have interest nor agricultural knowhow.
The country, once the breadbasket of the region, has been struggling to feed itself over the years.
The announcements for funding come at a time when the inclusive government was holding a stakeholders agricultural conference that was aimed at finding ways of reviving the shattered agricultural sector in Zimbabwe.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made, senior government officials, bankers, and farming groups were among the participants at the conference, funded by a multi-donor trust fund.
At the conference on Wednesday, stakeholders said a return of the rule of law and respect for property rights were essential to bring back investor confidence and for the restoration of agriculture.
They were referring to the land reform programme in which over 4,000 white farmers have so far had their farms redistributed, mostly without compensation.
A recent report by government stated that since the so-called land reform programme started in 2000, 203 farms out of the gazetted 6,571 farms have been compensated.
The government argues that the rest of the compensation is expected to come from the British government as agreed at the Lancaster discussions.
Labels: FAO, LANCASTER HOUSE AGREEMENT, USAID, WHITE FARMERS
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FAO chief urges South America, Africa to better living standards
Written by Larry Moonze in Isla Margarita, Venezuela
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:05:28 PM
AFRICA and South America must fight to improve the standards of living, FAO director general Jacques Diouf has urged. Attending the Second Africa and South American (II ASA) heads of state and government summit here in Venezuela, Diouf said estimates indicated that the world population would reach 9.2 billion people by 2050.
He said Africa and South America were brotherly peoples that must now fight to improve the standard of living in the world. Diouf said in particular, the ASA region must fight poverty. He said it was unfortunate that the number of hungry people in the world had increased.
Diouf said this was happening while estimates indicated that the world population would grow from 6.5 billion to 9.2 billion people by 2050.
He said that called for doubling the worldís food production.
Diouf said increasing food production two-fold required joint efforts.
He urged the II ASA Summit to discuss such initiatives, actions and strategies to increase food production in ASA member countries.
Diouf also announced that the FAO summit of heads of state and government would be held from November 16 to 18 to adopt policies and programmes aimed at allocating resources for concrete projects, and to discuss issues pertaining to promoting food security.
Labels: FAO, HUNGER, JACQUES DIOUF
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FAO to assist vulnerable Zim farmers with seed, fertilizer
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 12:11:00 AM
THE Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said it will give about 176,000 vulnerable Zimbabwean farmers seeds and fertilisers for the coming farming season.
FAO's emergency coordinator in Zimbabwe Jean-Claude Urvoy said the US $15 million scheme, which is being done in conjunction with the European Union, could possibly double food production this season compared to the previous season when the country reaped 1.2 million metric tonnes.
"With good seasonal rains, timely implementation and effective coordination, farmers' production in Zimbabwe could feasibly more than double this season, compared to the previous year's national average production level," he said
The beneficiary farmers, who represent between 10 and 15 per cent of farmers in the country, will each receive enough maize or sorghum seeds and fertiliser to plant a 0.5 hectare lot.
The EU, through its Food Facility, has committed US $1 billion over three years to quickly respond on a large scale to global hunger exacerbated by high food prices and the global economic crisis.
Funds from the initiative are channelled through UN agencies and other organisations, with FAO having received US $200 million for work in 25 countries, of which US $15 million is earmarked for Zimbabwe.
Urvoy said the EU funding would allow vulnerable farmers to move past subsistence to having surplus crops to sell for basic households needs, including paying for their children's school fees.
"Many farmers in Zimbabwe can't afford to buy enough inputs," Urvoy said.
Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the situation in the country remained acute, with not enough food to feed all 12.5 million Zimbabweans and with funding requirements to provide urgently-needed aid only half met.
According to an assessment by FAO, World Food Programme (WFP) and the Zimbabwean government, only 1.4 million metric tonnes of cereal will be available domestically, compared to the more than two million metric tonnes needed.
The assessment found that even with commercial imports, there will be a cereal deficit of 180,000 metric tonnes for 2009-2010.
Labels: FAO, FERTILIZER
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FAO warns of possible food crisis
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Thursday, February 12, 2009 2:15:17 AM
FOOD and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) senior economist Concepcion
Calpe has warned that the world might face another food crisis this year owing to
reduced planting due to falling prices and lack of finance for fertilisers.
And Calpe has projected that developing countries would spend US$343 billion this year on food imports alone, which is a 35 per cent increase from the US$245 billion that was spent last year.
Releasing the 2009 food outlook report, Calpe stated that riots and instability would again capture the headlines because the global financial crisis had encroached on the agricultural market resulting in farmers to cut down on planting due to lower prices and lack of funds to buy fertilisers.
“Under the current gloomy prospects for agricultural prices, high input costs and more difficult access to credit, farmers may cut their plantings, which might again result in a tightening of world food supplies,” Calpe stated. “There is a false sense of food security and food price increases are expected in the 2009-2010 harvesting season that will result in more severe food crises than those experienced recently.”
She explained that lower production and higher prices in 2009 would add to developing countries’ problems in obtaining sufficient credit and foreign exchange to buy agricultural commodities.
“Export finance is becoming more difficult to obtain, with banks tightening up the conditions for issuance of letters of credit, however, developing countries will in 2009 spend US $343 billion on food imports alone, which is a 35 per cent increase from the US$245 billion that was spent last year,” stated Calpe.
In 2008, agricultural commodities jumped to a record high, hence triggering food riots in Haiti, Egypt, Senegal, Bangladesh, among other countries, and this development prompted appeals for food aid for more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Labels: FAO, FOOD, HUNGER
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World food scarcity and the challenges of climate change and bio energy
Shobha Shukla writes this feature for The Zimbabwe Guardian as the world commemorates World Food Day on 16 October 2008
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:15:00 +0000
‘Rarely has the World Food Day assumed greater meaning than in present times, as rapidly rising food prices risk increasing the number of hungry in the world,’ according to the Food And Agriculture Organization (FAO).
FAO was founded in 1945 on the 16th of October - a day which is observed as World Food Day (WFD) in about 150 countries all over the world. The theme for this year’s WFD is ‘World Food Scarcity : The Challenges Of Climate Change And Bio Energy’ as there is a strong need to expand global awareness to reduce the effect of severe climate patterns on agriculture and the impact of bio fuels on food production.
Global warming and the bio fuel boom are threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in times to come. During 2007 alone, around 50 million more have been added to the rank of the world’s hungry due to rising prices, thus pushing the number of unfed to about 900 millions. The world seems to be further distancing itself from reaching the U.N. Millenium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015. Poor harvests, high oil costs, bio fuels and a rising demand for basic staple crops, especially in fast growing Asian countries, have been cited as examples for the spiralling food prices which have sparked protests, even riots, prompting the U.N.Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to give a wake up call.
Global wheat prices have more than doubled during the past year due to poor weather conditions in some wheat producing areas (droughts in Australia and Europe); a shift by farmers to growing crops used in making bio fuels; and speculation by traders.
Though India is being touted as one of the world’s hottest economy, nearly 50% of the world’s hungry live in it. It is listed as a low income, food deficit country, with about 25% of its population subsisting on Rs.12 or less, a day and around 77% living on less than $1 a day ( according to the latest report of National Commission for Enterprises In The Unorganized Sector).
It does boast of having a burgeoning 350 million strong middle class with improved diets ( which was lamented by Ms.Rice and Mr.Bush to be one of the causes of the global food price crisis). Yet around 35% of its population is food insecure, consuming less than 80% of the daily minimum requirement and it has the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of malnutrition in children below three years of age in the world (about 46%).
Today, India faces an agricultural crisis and hunger, which are due to not only current high prices of basic staples, but skewed up government policies too. Her rapid economic growth and accompanying shortages have also fuelled prices. State support for agriculture and irrigation has been slashed, price support reduced and the public distribution system drastically curtailed.. While the GDP grew at the rate of 8.5% in 2006-2007, the growth in agricultural sector was a mere 2.6%.Also marginal land holdings have increased and total cultivated land decreased, especially as more and more agricultural land is being seized by domestic and international corporations in the form of ‘Special Economic Zones’ for industrialization (as happened in Nandigram and to some extent in Singur).
The results have been disastrous as many studies show that agricultural growth reduces poverty and hunger much more than urban and industrial development. A spate of farmer suicides ( about 150,000 during the last decade) is a rude reminder of our agrarian crisis and the grip of cash cropping on poor farmers, bolstered by seed and chemical agribusiness. India has belatedly sought to control prices by holding back essential commodities, curbing export of non-premium rice and waiving off loans of farmers. Obviously more needs to be done than mere cosmetic changes.
There is an urgent need to improve productivity of dry land farming (as 60% of India ’s agriculture is rain dependent) as well as a better implementation of the National Rural Employment Programme and the Public Distribution System.
The director general of FAO, Dr. Jacques Dious, has called upon governments to pay urgent attention to needs of agriculture and water management and also increased investment in agriculture. At the recent Rome Summit held in June 2008, he pointed out that in 2006 the world spent 1.2 trillion dollars on arms. He asked, ‘Against that backdrop how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find $ 30 billion a year to enable the hungry to enjoy the most fundamental human right to food and thus the right to life.’ Yet it has been estimated that there is enough food for all in the world, at least 2700 kilo calories per person, per day.
But it is the lack of purchasing power (more than food shortage due to population explosion and inclement weather conditions) which makes so many millions go to bed hungry every day. Hunger is linked to the denial of a living wage to the working poor. It is about denial of land to the landless. It is caused by socio economic policies that deny people the right to food. Resources are there to end hunger, but they are exploited by a miniscule few to the detriment of others So the real reason for all this hunger and poverty may well be policy and not scarcity; politics and not inevitability. The real culprits are economies that fail to offer everyone opportunities and societies that place economic efficiency above compassion.
As we Indians gloat over our victory in the recently concluded Nuclear Deal and as Ratan Tata and his Nano are hailed as an engineering marvel, let us do something sincere and concrete to put some food inside empty bellies. That then would be a truly Indian Miracle. Till then, let each one of us at least refrain from over eating and throwing away left over food in the dustbin.
Shobha Shukla
[The author teaches Physics at India's Loreto Convent and has been writing extensively in English and Hindi media. She serves as Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS).]
Labels: BIOFUELS, FAO, FOOD, WORLD FOOD DAY
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Blow the trumpet of freedom ‘Gabriel’ Mugabe
By Lloyd Whitefield Butler Jnr in NEW YORK
A US Virginia Governor told the legislature: "You may place the slave where you please — you may put him under any process, which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being — you may do all this, and the idea that he was born to be free will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality — it is the ethereal part of his nature which oppression cannot reach — it is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand of the Deity, and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man." Robert Mugabe recently told the British American Pharaohs "Only God will remove me!"
May millions of Zimbabweans come out dancing, singing, drumming, and cast their votes in the spirit of self-determination, independence, and pay homage to the greatest African leader and elder statesman in the world President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
God will honour and bless the Elders and the Ancestors of Africa so that thy days in the land shall be long.
Praise the God that blessed Africa from the beginning of time. The Great God Who has placed the focus of the world on Zimbabwe to express on behalf of the suffering people of the world to blow your Trumpet as a vote for self-integrity, independence, and sovereignty.
Zimbabwe Voters: Remember that "God Hears the Cry of the Oppressed" and while President Robert Gabriel Mugabe stands before the biblical Pharaoh slave-making governments of America and Britain in the tradition of the biblical Gabriel, he blows his trumpet for the freedom, justice and equality of the African people.
Blow your Trumpet for Robert "Gabriel" Mugabe and cast your votes.
May God give the people of Zimbabwe and Africa the strength and wisdom to protect and strengthen the wisdom of the military generals, and preserve their God-given land and mineral resources.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Blow your trumpet blow,
Come Gabriel blow your horn
Let the whole world know
It’s time for judgment morn
Run, run, they’re goin’ run
To find a hiding place
Run, but not a one
Can ever hide his face.
The important role of defending our country cannot be left to mediocre officers incapable of comprehending and analytically evaluating the operational environment to ensure that the sovereignty of our state is not only preserved, but enhanced . . .
With the current unjustified demonisation of Zimbabwe by Western powers, the role of intelligence in shaping foreign, security and economic policies become even more critical . . .
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Blow your trumpet loud,
Blow your trumpet high
The whole world’s goin’ shake
From motion depths up to the sky
The day’s not far away
Excerpts of President Mugabe’s speech at the UN:
"The West still negates our sovereignties by way of control of our resources, in the process making us mere chattels in out own lands, mere minders of its transnational interests. In my own country and other sister states in Southern Africa, the most visible form of this control has been over land despoiled from us at the onset of British colonialism.
"That control largely persists, although it stands firmly challenged in Zimbabwe, thereby triggering the current stand-off between us and Britain, supported by her cousin states, most notably the United States and Australia. Mr Bush, Mr Blair and now Mr Brown’s sense of human rights precludes our people’s right to their God-given resources, which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists".
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
He’s comin’ soon I know
Stand upon the land
Take up your horn and blow
This ole’ world’s a-rockin’
Reeling and a-rockin’
How it a keeps on standin’
I don’t know
"I lost 11 precious years of my life in the jail of a white man whose freedom and well-being I have assured from the first day of Zimbabwe’s Independence. I lost a further 15 years fighting white injustice in my country.
"Ian Smith is responsible for the death of well over 50 000 of my people. I bear scars of his tyranny which Britain and America condoned. I meet his victims everyday. Yet he walked free. He farmed free. He talked freely, associates freely under a black Government. We taught him democracy. We gave him back his humanity."
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Lift up your voice, and shout, Gabriel
Take up your horn and blow, blow,
Come on and blow, your trumpet blow
Come Gabriel, blow your horn
Let the whole world know
It’s time for judgment morn
"He would have faced a different fate here and in Europe if the 50 000 he killed were Europeans. Africa has not called for a Nuremberg trial against the white world which committed heinous crimes against its own humanity. It has not hunted perpetrators of this genocide, many of whom live to this day, nor has it got reparations from those who offended against it. Instead it is Africa which is in the dock, facing trial from the same world that persecuted it for centuries.
"Let Mr. Bush read history correctly. Let him realise that both personally and in his representative capacity as the current President of the United States, he stands for this ‘civilisation’ which occupied, which colonised, which incarcerated, which killed. He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Run, run, they’re goin’ run
To find a hiding (to find a hiding place) place
Run, but not a one
Can ever hide his face
"Mr President, We are alarmed that under his leadership, basic rights of his own people and those of the rest of the world have summarily been rolled back. America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We seem all guilty for 9/11. Mr Bush thinks he stands above all structures of governance, whether national or international.
"At home, he apparently does not need the Congress. Abroad, he does not need the UN, international law and opinion. This forum did not sanction Blair and Bush’s misadventures in Iraq. The two rode roughshod over the UN and international opinion. Almighty Bush is now corning back to the UN for a rescue package because his nose is bloodied! Yet he dares lecture us on tyranny. Indeed, he wants us to pray him! We say ‘No’ to him and encourage him to get out of Iraq. Indeed, he should mend his ways before he clambers up the pulpit to deliver pieties of democracy."
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Blow your trumpet loud,
Blow your trumpet high
The whole world’s goin’ shake
From motion depths up to the sky
"The British and the Americans have gone on a relentless campaign of destabilising and vilifying my country. They have sponsored surrogate forces to challenge lawful authority in my country. They seek regime change, placing themselves in the role of the Zimbabwean people in whose collective will democracy places the right to define and change regimes.
"Let these sinister governments be told here and now that Zimbabwe will not allow a regime change authored by outsiders. We do not interfere with their own systems in America and Britain. Mr Bush and Mr Brown have no role to play in our national affairs. They are outsiders and mischievous outsiders and should therefore keep out! The colonial sun set a long time ago; in 1980 in the case of Zimbabwe, and hence Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. Never!
"We do not deserve sanctions. We are Zimbabweans and we know how to deal with our problems. We have done so in the past, well before Bush and Brown were known politically. We have our own regional and continental organisations and communities."
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
The day’s not far away
He’s comin’ soon I know
Stand upon the land
Take up your horn and blow,
Blow, Gabriel, blow
Blow, Gabriel, blow
"In that vein, I wish to express my country’s gratitude to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa who, on behalf of Sadc, successfully facilitated the dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition parties, which yielded the agreement that has now resulted in the constitutional provisions being finally adopted. Consequently, we will be holding multiple democratic elections in March 2008. Indeed we have always had timeous general and presidential elections since our independence.
"Mr President, In conclusion, let me stress once more that the strength of the United Nations lies in its universality and impartiality as it implements its mandate to promote peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and international law as outlined in the Charter. Zimbabwe stands ready to play its part in all efforts and programmes aimed at achieving these noble goals. I thank you."
My Lord’s Goin’ Move this Wicked Race
Wicked race, wicked race
My Lord’s Goin’ Move this Wicked Race
Wicked race, wicked race
He’s goin to raise up a nation that will obey! — American Negro Gospel Spiritual.
Labels: FAO, MUGABE, SPEECHES
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