Over 1000 families in Musungwa area face hunger
By Gift Chanda in Itezhi-tezhi
Wed 13 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT
OVER 1,000 households in chief Musungwa's area in Itezhi-tezhi will require food aid this year, the traditional leader has revealed. The chiefdom could struggle to feed itself after a poor maize harvest that was recorded due to poor weather conditions experienced in the last farming season.
"We had a big problem of floods in the last farming season and this will affect the lives of many people here," chief Musungwa of the Ila people of Itezhi-tezhi district said when agriculture deputy minister Greyford Monde paid a courtesy call on him at his palace on Saturday.
He said there was need for the government to quickly send relief food to the area to prevent starvation.
Chief Musungwa said most households in the area risked starving if the relief food was not sent before the onset of the rains as they did not have enough food to last until the next harvest.
"The food should be sent as quickly as possible because the situation in our area is already desperate," he said.
"People out there will starve. Maize production was very poor this year because of the floods and so the government needs to move in as quickly as possible because once it starts running heavily, the roads will become impassable."
But Monde said the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit had already approved the quantity of relief maize for the area.
He also assured farmers of early delivery of inputs. Meanwhile, 10,980 bags of D Compound fertiliser have been delivered to Itezhi-tezhi district.
Monde said the government wants to ensure that it cuts down on late delivery of inputs this farming season to boost crop output next year.
Earlier, Monde assured chief Musungwa that the Zambia Wildlife Authority would be engaged to address the human-animal conflict in his chiefdom.
The chief said the problem of human-animal conflict in the area had escalated, threatening agricultural output as wild animals terrorised people's fields.
Labels: CHIEF MUSUNGWA, FLOODS, HUNGER, ITEHZI-TEHZI
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Mugurameno villagers appeal for relief food
By Oswald Sichone in Kafue
Sun 10 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT
VILLAGERS in Mugurameno area in Kafue district have appealed to the government to help them with relief food because their crop fields had been destroyed by wild animals.
The villagers made an appeal when area member of parliament Obvious Mwaliteta visited the area to try and resolve land disputes which have characterised the Goba chiefdom.
Margaret Kambanje, who spoke on behalf of the other villagers, said they had stopped farming because their fields were being destroyed by elephants and hippos which had terrorised the area.
"The problem we have here in Mugurameno is that every time an elephant kills a human being or destroys our crop field, ZAWA does not come to our aid; they say that we don't have transport and bullets to kill the animals. But when an elephant or hippo has been killed, the whole place is filled with ZAWA officials, even those from Lusaka find their way here. Maybe, it's because they want to share the meat from the slain animals. ZAWA seems to be more concerned about wildlife than the lives of human beings," Kambanje complained.
She said the damage that was done to their crops by the elephants was irreparable, adding that most villagers were surviving on local wild fruits known as 'Masau'.
Kambanje also appealed to Mwaliteta to help them have a police post in the area, saying lack of police presence had resulted in a lot of criminal acts.
"Ba honorable, we don't have a police post in the whole chiefdom, and this has resulted in lawlessness; recently, some women were arrested by Chirundu police because they blocked the road and broke a vehicle belonging to ZAWA after an elephant killed a human being. We need para-military officers here in Mugurameno to protect us because we are located at the border with Zimbabwe where anything can happen at any time," said Kambanje.
And Mwaliteta instructed Kafue district administrative officer Ngoni Moyo who had accompanied him to Mugurameno to take note of the villagers' concerns and ensure that they benefit from relief food that is given under the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit.
Mwaliteta assured them that the government would do everything possible to ensure that no human being in Mugurameno died of hunger, adding that he would engage stakeholders in order to secure food for the people of Chiawa.
Mugurameno, which is 150 kilometres south east of Kafue, is well known for its frequent cases of human-animal conflicts and this has made the area hunger-stricken. Villagers survive on fish and government relief food.
Labels: HUNGER, KAFUE, WILDLIFE
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Scott bemoans under-nutrition among children
By Fridah Nkonde
Fri 05 Apr. 2013, 14:01 CAT
VICE-PRESIDENT Dr Guy Scott says Zambian children have been denied the opportunity to develop to their full potential due to the problem of under-nutrition, which has resulted in high levels of stunting which are close to 45 per cent.
During the launch of the first 1,000 most critical days programme on Wednesday, Vice-President Scott, who was represented by community development minister Dr Joseph Katema said the first 1,000 most critical days programme was an effort to reverse the adverse nutrition status of the children which had continued to be unsatisfactory for over two decades.
"Stunting has severe consequences on the development of the child as it impacts on school performance and impairs productivity. This high level of under-nutrition makes our country to have one of the highest rates of stunting beyond the World Health Organisation cut off point," he said.
"This is unacceptable because it compromises our economic and national development potential which is dependent on children growing and developing well into strong and productive adults. As government, we are concerned because we do not want our children to become trapped in a vicious circle of factors that perpetuate and accentuate the problem of stunting."
Vice-President Scott said the problem of stunting was worsened by frequent childhood infections which were irreversible, adding that it was important to note that timing was essential in order to prevent irreversible damage within the first 1,000 days window for preventing stunting.
He said the government was aware that there were disadvantaged and impoverished sections of the population who should be the first target of poverty reduction and social protection programmes.
Vice-President Scott said the first 1,000 most critical days programme required multisectoral efforts and implored the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to strengthen its crop diversification programme.
He said government would ensure that activities under the first 1,000 most critical days in line ministries and other government institutions received the required funds from the treasury so as to contribute to the attainment of the millennium development goals one, four and five which had targeted reducing poverty, child and maternal deaths.
Vice-President Scott said government envisages reducing stunting by the year 2015.
And Civil Society Organisation - Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance coordinator William Chilufya presented 10 key recommendations to improve nutrition in Zambia.
"There is need for us as a country to build the political will to tackle under nutrition; we must ensure effective high-level national coordination. We must increase spending, we must address serious gaps to ensure adequate human resource at all levels, and we must protect nutrition funding," Chilufya said.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the cooperating partners, DFID acting head of office Malcolm Geere said Zambia had one of the highest rates of childhood under nutrition in the world with higher rates of chronic malnutrition or stunting (46.7 per cent) than in average for Africa (42 per cent).
Labels: GUY SCOTT, HUNGER, MALNUTRITION
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Brace for hunger disaster, Mweetwa urges govt
By Moses Kuwema and Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Thu 04 Apr. 2013, 14:00 CAT
Choma Central UPND member of parliament Cornelius Mweetwa says the government should brace and prepare for a national disaster in terms of hunger.
And Mweetwa says Choma is likely to be the true economic hub of Southern Province if the developments that have been earmarked are implemented.
Meanwhile, the tourist capital has been hit with varying prices of mealie-meal as traders are transporting the commodity into Zimbabwe.
In an interview, Mweetwa said it was important for the government to prepare before hand for a national disaster and declare Zambia a disaster zone.
"This is a timely caution to our colleagues now as they begin to appropriate resources, those that were not budgeted for in the budget not to start allocating them unnecessary. The trail of destruction the rainy season has left is something else. The maize crop for 2012-2013 has terribly failed as a result of the erratic rain. This is also as a result of failure to deliver agro inputs on time because the few farmers who have a little food are those who had personal money and bought inputs," he said.
Mweetwa said quick intervention measures needed to be put in place and the little maize that the country had in terms of stock should be taken care of.
"All these exports should be halted otherwise the country will be in a terrible crisis. We are not prepared to eat yellow maize again," he said.
And Mweetwa said the Choma Municipal Council had received overwhelming response from people who applied for plots and that the response was triggered by the town's new status of provincial capital.
"They want to come and invest in Choma. I am very happy with the response from the people of this country. Choma is likely to become the true economic hub of the province as it is already centrally located. I want to appeal to businesses, especially those that are Zambian owned that the people of Choma are calling for industries in order to promote job creation and to promote value addition. Choma being an agriculture area produces a lot of crops and a lot of beef, pork and other animal related products are found here in Choma," he said.
Mweetwa said this would help in turning Choma into a city and not a mere provincial capital.
And a check around Livingstone's main business trading area revealed a glaring supply inadequacy with town centre Shoprite outlet having no 25 kilogramme bags of both breakfast and roller meal as at 10:20 hours on Tuesday while a check at Spar revealed only breakfast meal in stock.
The mealie meal prices although up to the recommended K55 for a 25 kilogramme of breakfast meal varied with Shoprite town centre outlet displaying a price tag of K49.99 while roller meal was pegged at K44.49.
A merchandising officer for Shoprite town centre outlet found near the mealie-meal stand who preferred anonymity said the two bags of roller meal which were displayed were damaged ones and that he was not sure when the shop was to receive new supplies.
The Shoprite outlet had in stock 2.5 kilograms of breakfast mealie-meal pegged at K6.68 5 kilogramme bags of breakfast meal at K12.48 and roller meal at K7.78.
At Spar near Mazhandu bus station a merchandising officer said the outlet had just increased the prices of the commodity to K55 for breakfast mealie-meal.
Asked about roller mea, the merchandising officer said there was a track offloading the commodity and was yet to be briefed on the new price.
At Falls Supermarket formerly Associated Stores, breakfast and roller meal from National Milling and Munsanza Milling were available all pegged at K55 and K49 for breakfast and roller meal respectively.
A check at the Victoria Falls border revealed a hand full of cyclists who had mealie-meal and charcoal bags covered in black plastics so as to cross over into neighbouring Zimbabwe with ease.
And when contacted for a comment, Livingstone district commissioner, Omar Munsanje said he was in Choma and would assess the situation upon his return to Livingstone.
Labels: CORNELIUS MWEETWA, HUNGER, UPND
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Malnutrition cases on the rise - Masi
By Fridah Nkonde
Fri 07 Dec. 2012, 11:59 CAT
NATIONAL Food Nutrition Commission director Dr Cassim Masi says cases of malnutrition in the country are on the rise. And Programme Against Malnutrition says children who are malnourished are unable to grow up well.
In an interview yesterday, Dr Masi said the commission's main concern was addressing the problem of under nutrition focusing on the children under the age of five.
He was commenting on a statement by Zambia Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition Alliance coordinator William Chilufya that malnutrition was still a major problem affecting 45 per cent of children under the age of five.
Chilufya said malnutrition was more than just a health problem and that the country needed to politicise nutrition development so that it gets the attention it deserve s in fighting malnutrition.
"Presently, nutrition in Zambia is treated as a health issue. While this is important, it overlooks the fact that some causes of under-nutrition or malnutrition are not health related. A number of interlocking factors lead to insufficient nutrition. The focus on nutrition as a health issue underplays the reality of multiple causal factors that reinforce under-nutrition," Chilufya said.
Dr Masi said present malnutrition figures were outdated.
"What people need to understand is that when we talk about malnutrition, we refer to over nutrition which is obesity and under nutrition. At the moment we are still saying that 45 per cent of children under the age of five are affected by malnutrition, but I am sure the figures have now changed because we are still referring to the 2007 health survey. We will have new figures by January 2013," he said.
Dr Masi said the commission had come up with a strategy to address malnutrition, adding that the commission was working hard to reduce chronic malnutrition in the country.
"We are part of government and our role is to coordinate these efforts in order to reduce malnutrition. We believe that malnutrition cannot be addressed by one sector. Sectors such as health, agriculture, local government, community development, and education have a part to play," he said.
He said the commission was doing a food consumption survey to find out what Zambians were eating.
He said that the food that most people were eating did not provide the necessary ingredients to allow the human body to function properly.
And PAM finance and administration manager Francis Kasamala called on Zambians to join in the fight against malnutrition in the country.
Kasamala said children who were malnourished had difficulties to adapt well in school.
He said it was evident that most children in Zambia today were badly affected by malnutrition. He advised mothers to try by all means to improve on the way they prepared their food. He praised the government for putting up mechanisms to fight malnutrition in the country.
Labels: CASSIM MASI, HUNGER
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COMMENT - There are generic ads and newsitems talking about 'famine in the Horn of Africa' as if there is no backstory of decades of known destabilisation by the US and UK, including through military invasion by the Anglo-Saxon proxies Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Camps aren't good at the best of times, however, there seems to be a consistent agenda behind the ongoing western destabilisation of Somalia.
UN Starves One Million Somalis on 10 Cents A Day
Tue, 05/29/2012 - 23:23
by Thomas C. Mountain
The United States enlisted Ethiopia, Uganda, the African Union, and the United Nations to destroy the lives and sovereignty of the Somali people. The subjugation of Somalia has cost billions, which the Americans have freely spent, but Washington and its vassals can spare only 10 cents a day to feed the Somali victims – a budget designed for mass death.
“A million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war.”
The UN announced its budget for feeding the over one million Somali refugees under its care for the next year and have allocated less than 10 cents a day to do so.
Anthony Lake, once nominated to head the CIA, now UNICEF supremo, held a press conference in April, 2012, to declare a budget of $35 million for the next year to feed the Somali refugees in its care, over one million and growing by the day. And all the while the UN is funding the 20,000 man strong African Union army “pacifying” Mogadishu to the tune of over $350 million, $30 million a month and counting.
The UN created these refugees in the first place, sending in the Ethiopian army in 2006 to bring fire and sword to newly peaceful Somalia, followed by the UN-dispatched relief forces, now over 15,000 from Uganda, ever since 2008.
Half a million Somali refugees created by the Ethiopian army, another half a million created by the UN/AU “pacification” of Mogadishu and now, following the worst drought and famine in 60 years, less than 10 cents a day to feed the lot. Talk about cold blooded. Upon hearing this shouldn’t one automatically think mass murder by starvation, genocide even? Just as the US Army used to do to American Indians, drive them from their land into “refugee camps” and then starve them to death? Just as the USA did to the Filipino people when it colonized the Philippines in the early 20th Century? The same again in Vietnam in the 1960’s?
“Shouldn’t one automatically think mass murder by starvation, genocide even?”
The War on Terror in Somalia is none other than the War on the Somali people and the UN is the instrument used to commit Pax Americana’s crimes. A million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war.
I can still remember when the government here in Eritrea kicked out all the UN “peacekeepers” and how good it felt to see them go. Here’s to the day all of Somalia sees the end to the UN, the AU, Ethiopia, the USA or any foreign military presence, both overt and covert. Until that day blood will only continue to be spilt and children starve and war, the war on the Somali people, will continue.
Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent western journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.
Labels: DESTABILISATION, GENOCIDE, HUNGER, NEOCOLONIALISM, SOMALIA
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Govt forms committee to assess food situation
Friday, 16 March 2012 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
Government has resuscitated the food emergency committee to immediately assess the food situation and requirements countrywide. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made will chair the committee. Other committee members are Local Government, Urban and Rural Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paurina Mpariwa and Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche, Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Tapiwa Mashakada are also part of the committee.
Minister Made said the inter-ministerial committee was formed after a realisation by Cabinet that there is a looming drought until next year.
The bulk of the maize crop that was planted during the 2011/12 summer cropping season has been declared a write-off.
This means that an anticipated short-term intervention in terms of grain loan scheme would have to be spread over 12 months.
“The committee is to establish the number of people requiring assistance, quantity of locally produced grain and total national requirement to close the gap between the available grain and shortage.
The committee would put in place an urgent programme to meet any shortfall in local production, identify areas of supply and deficit and come up with the types of distribution of grain and mode of repayment.
The committee would look at grain loan schemes as well as vulnerable households and come up with a comprehensive budget.
The grain loan scheme, which was relating to grain production, will also have to include cash purchases.
The scheme will no longer cater only for those who anticipated poor harvests but would include even those without food.
Minister Made said farmers in the southern region could use proceeds from their livestock to buy grain from the Grain Marketing Board.
On the grain loan scheme, Minister Made said Cabinet had concluded that its performance had been very poor.
“The GMB has been giving out inadequate grain far below the demand. With immediate effect anyone approaching the GMB requiring a grain loan especially in the communal areas has to be considered,” he said.
Minister Made said the movement of provincial managers had assisted in curbing the practice.
“As Minister of Agriculture, I would like to warn GMB employees to concentrate on matters relating to effective serving of the people in relation to the situation of food.
“Managers should provide good services to consumers otherwise we part ways,” he said.
The GMB recently dismissed four employees for defrauding the company while all provincial managers were transferred to curb rampant corruption at the parastatal.
Labels: HUNGER, JOSEPH MADE
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Hunger looms in Mazabuka wards
By Henry Chibulu in Mazabuka
Mon 05 Mar. 2012, 11:57 CAT
HUNGER is looming in Kasengo and Chitete wards of Mazabuka following a dry spell experienced by farmers in the two areas. But Mazabuka district commissioner Eugine Munyama says the government is aware of the poor harvest in some areas and has since sent officers to conduct a crop assessment.
He said all areas facing a looming hunger situation will be visited by officers from the Ministry of Agriculture but added that Mugoto is one area whose assessment report has been completed.
Munyama said the officers recommended that relief food supplies be sent to the affected community.
Both Kasengo ward councillor Shephard Mweene and his Chitete counterpart, Shizwell Mainza said the situation in the two wards was desperate and calls for urgent government intervention because no farmer will record a good harvest.
The duo said the government would be required to send relief food supplies to the two areas until the next farming season because people have no means to sustain their families.
They commended the government for promptly providing farming inputs under the Farmer Input Support Programme.
Meanwhile, the two civic leaders have also praised the government for sending veterinary officers to vaccinate their animals currently dying from corridor related diseases.
The councillors said quick government intervention on the matter has cheered cattle farmers whom they said had no capacity to protect their animals.
They stated that before government intervention, cattle farmers were selling animals as low as K200,000 in order for them not to completely lose out.
Two weeks ago, Mazabuka mayor Lloyd Buumba also called on the government to intervene and assist poor farmers in protecting their animals against livestock diseases.
Buumba said farmers had no capacity to buy veterinary drugs to treat their animals because they spent all their moneys on agricultural inputs for this farming season.
The cattle population in Mazabuka has been decimated by corridor diseases and previous attempts by the government to restock the cattle population have yielded negative results because of endemic livestock diseases.
Vaccination of cattle by cattle farmers has equally proved to be a problem as farmers have not appreciated cattle farming as a business.
Labels: HUNGER, MAZABUKA DISTRICT
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COMMENT - It is time for the PF to start collecting $1 to $2 billion a year from the mining sector that the government is owed TODAY in unpaid taxes, and start creating jobs through infrastructure, especially small scale irrigation to bring more land under cultivation and end the annual floods. No child in Zambia should go hunger at all. The country is too rich, but the stealing of the nation's resources by transnational corporations and banks needs to end immediately.
45% of Zambia's children chronically malnourished
By Mwila Chansa-Ntambi in Kitwe
Fri 17 Feb. 2012, 12:01 CAT
A SAVE the Children report has cited Zambia as
one of the ten countries with the slowest annual reduction of stunting between 1990 and 2010. And a new global research by Save the Children says
rising food prices and malnutrition are putting future global progress on child mortality at risk.According to a press release by Save the Children Zambia director Marc Nosbach,
45 per cent of children in Zambia were chronically malnourished and that there has been no significant improvement in reducing the rate in the last few years.
"In recent years, the world has made dramatic progress in reducing child deaths down from 12 to 7.6 million but this momentum will stall if we fail to tackle malnutrition," Nosbach stated.
He observed that malnutrition could damage children permanently, impairing their brains and bodies but that with focused action, 'we can put in place solutions which will end this scandal'.
"Although malnutrition is the underlying cause of a third of child deaths, it has not received the same high-profile campaigning and investment as other causes of child mortality like HIV/AIDS or malaria. This has meant that while the child mortality rate from malaria has been cut by a third since 2000, child malnutrition rates in Africa have decreased by less than 0.3 percent," Nosbach noted.
He added that malnutrition's costs both in human and economic terms were huge.
He added that a chronically malnourished child could have an I.Q of up to 15 times less than a properly nourished child.
He stated that the cost of child malnutrition to the global economy in 2010 alone was nearly US$121 billion.
Nosbach proposed a package of basic measures including fortifying basic foods with essential minerals or vitamins, encouraging exclusive breastfeeding for children up to six months of age and better investment in cash transfers with payments targeted at the poorest families.
He stated that the above measures could turn the tide on malnutrition and thereby reduce the vulnerability of families to food price spikes.
Nosbach stated that Save the Children was calling on all world leaders to make the malnutrition crisis visible by setting global and national targets to reduce stunting, increase funding for direct nutrition interventions such as breastfeeding and fortification and invest in effective social protection policies that reach vulnerable families.
He added that there was need for the G20 meetings to galvanise political leadership on hunger and build a plan of concrete action to tackle malnutrition.
"In Zambia we need to show the same spirit in the fight against malnutrition, as the Chipolopolo showed us during the Africa Cup of Nations," stated Nosbach.
And a new global survey by Save the Children has indicated that nearly half of families are forced to cut back on food and children are made to work to help feed their family, following years of rocketing food prices.
Save the Children warns that if no concerted action is taken, half a billion children globally would be physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years, their lives blighted by malnutrition.
Labels: HUNGER, MALNUTRITION, POVERTY
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Hunger is the only war we have in Zambia - Sata
By Moses Kuwema in Nakonde
Sun 27 Nov. 2011, 12:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata says the biggest war that Zambia faces is hunger and unemployment. Addressing a rally to drum up support for the PF parliamentary candidate Abel Sichula at Nakonde high school grounds on Friday, President Sata said once the country sorts out the problem of unemployment, the hunger problem would equally be sorted out.
"…I have come here to show you because these people were spreading false stories that Sata will bring war, that Sata will take you people of Nakonde to Tanganyika. Now what I want to tell you is that the only war we have in Zambia is hunger and unemployment. If we sort out the problem of unemployment, then we would have sorted out the problems of hunger as well," President Sata said.
He said the PF government had never brought war in the country since attaining power contrary to speculation prior to the September 20 elections.
"I came to show you that since we took over government as PF, we have never brought any war, we have never forced you to Tanganyika, it is better we get the soil from there and bring it here. Today I have come here because people that have nothing to tell you have been spreading lies about me. They have been coming up with all sorts of stories such as Sata is sick, Sata is dead now if people say you are dead then you are lucky. I came here to show you that I am fit contrary to the stories you have been hearing, since I came here I have not sat down," said President Sata who addressed the rally for about an hour.
And President Sata urged the people of Nakonde to vote for Sichula in tomorrow's 28 by-election.
"You people here don't have water, you had Silavwe who used to speak for you but they were not listening to him. You people have got no schools, 20 years on, the road going to Mbala has not been completed and 20 years later the road going to Chitipa is not there. There is no fertiliser and most of it that comes here is sold. If you are used to suffering, it's your fault because if you don't want Abel Sichula, we can't force you," President Sata said.
He urged Sichula to ensure that most villages in the area had boreholes once he was elected as member of parliament.
President Sata also urged Sichula to work in consultation with former area member of parliament Claver Silavwe.
And former deputy minister of works and supply in the MMD regime Lameck Mangani said he was happy that most of the people who were against his move to join the PF had been proved wrong because Sata was now president.
"When I joined the PF, a lot of people were saying I think there is something wrong with Mangani, how can he join Sata? They will not go anywhere, I am happy that this time all the people who were against my move have been proved wrong because the president is Sata," said Mangani.
Meanwhile, information minister Given Lubinda said President Sata had done a lot for the country in the less 70 days he has been in office.
Lubinda said President Sata had made sure that the people were able to access medical health care for free at hospitals.
"When we came here people were telling you that the PF will not do anything but now not even 70 days has elapsed and you have seen how the president is working. He has made sure that all the children go to school because of free education. And within the short period of time he has abolished medical fee. All the children will be going to the hospital for free and all those who were saying Sata can never govern have been shamed," said Lubinda.
Earlier, when President Sata paid a courtesy call on chieftainess Nawaitwika of the Namwanga people, the chief asked the President to build a high school in the area.
Chieftainess Nawaitwika also bemoaned the delayed completion of the Nakonde district hospital.
Labels: HUNGER, MICHAEL SATA, POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT
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Chiefs urged to help ensure food security
Thursday, 20 October 2011 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
CHIEFS and traditional leadership should play a leading role in ensuring household food security in their communities, a Cabinet Minister has said. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made made the call at the Seed Co launch of Zunde RaMambo programme in Stapleford yesterday.
He said it was the duty of chiefs to ensure members in their communities were fed and that the community always had a reserve to help the less privileged. "Chiefs always remember that it is incumbent upon you to ensure that all residents within your areas of jurisdiction are well provided for in terms of food security," he said.
He applauded Seed Co for the initiative given the multiple challenges faced by rural communities. Minister Made said the situation has been made worse by the HIV and Aids pandemic, which has had a toll on the productive generations, and has left a trail of child-headed households, which cannot fend for themselves.
"Thus our traditional leaders are inundated by the unprecedented demand for food within the communities they preside over and this initiative proffers capacity to the traditional leadership institutions to salvage the situation."
President of the Chiefs' Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, said it was important that chiefs encouraged seed houses to give farmers seed on credit and ensure national food security. He said it was disheartening to note that seed houses were stocked with seed yet farmers did not have cash to buy.
"The situation could improve if farmers are given seed on credit and pay later. This can be done through chiefs who will distribute to their farmers and chances of absconding will be limited," he said.
Chief Charumbira attacked some corrupt Agritex officers who divert inputs intended for vulnerable members of the communities for their own use.
"Agritex officers should not screen the beneficiaries alone but should be assisted by the Chiefs who know the real people who deserve assistance," said Chief Charumbira.
"It is bad that the intended beneficiaries end up not getting any assistance while Agritex officers and other Government officials benefit."
Seed Co donated 100kgs of maize seed to an individual chief while chiefs in some areas will also get soyabean seed.
Seed Co managing director Mr Dennis Zaranyika said his company was willing to assist vulnerable members of the society trough the Zunde RaMambo programme.
He urged chiefs to put the seed to good use and work with extension officers to attain high yields.
Labels: CHIEFS, FOOD, HUNGER, JOSEPH MADE, SEEDCO
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COMMENT - The real cause of famine anywhere - neoliberal destruction of the domestic economy, by the IMF/World Bank.
Somalia: the Real Causes of Famine
by Michel Chossudovsky
First published in 1993, Third World Resurgence and Le Monde diplomatique
The IMF Intervention in the Early 1980s
Somalia was a pastoral economy based on "exchange" between nomadic herdsmen and small agriculturalists. Nomadic pastoralists accounted for 50 percent of the population. In the 1970s, resettlement programs led to the development of a sizeable sector of commercial pastoralism. Livestock contributed to 80 percent of export earnings until 1983. Despite recurrent droughts, Somalia remained virtually self-sufficient in food until the 1970s.
The IMF-World Bank intervention in the early 1980s contributed to exacerbating the crisis of Somali agriculture. The economic reforms undermined the fragile exchange relationship between the "nomadic economy" and the "sedentary economy" - i.e. between pastoralists and small farmers characterized by money transactions as well as traditional barter. A very tight austerity program was imposed on the government largely to release the funds required to service Somalia's debt with the Paris Club. In fact, a large share of the external debt was held by the Washington-based financial institutions.' According to an ILO mission report:
[T]he Fund alone among Somalia's major recipients of debt service payments, refuses to reschedule. (...) De facto it is helping to finance an adjustment program, one of whose major goals is to repay the IMF itself.
Towards the Destruction of Food Agriculture
The structural adjustment program reinforced Somalia's dependency on imported grain. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, food aid increased fifteen-fold, at the rate of 31 percent per annum.' Combined with increased commercial imports, this influx of cheap surplus wheat and rice sold in the domestic market led to the displacement of local producers, as well as to a major shift in food consumption patterns to the detriment of traditional crops (maize and sorghum). The devaluation of the Somali shilling, imposed by the IMF in June 1981, was followed by periodic devaluations, leading to hikes in the prices of fuel, fertilizer and farm inputs. The impact on agricultural producers was immediate particularly in rain-fed agriculture, as well as in the areas of irrigated farming. Urban purchasing power declined dramatically, government extension programs were curtailed, infrastructure collapsed, the deregulation of the grain market and the influx of "food aid" led to the impoverishment of farming communities.'
Also, during this period, much of the best agricultural land was appropriated by bureaucrats, army officers and merchants with connections to the government.' Rather than promoting food production for the domestic market, the donors were encouraging the development of so-called "high value-added" fruits, vegetables, oilseeds and cotton for export on the best irrigated farmland.
Collapse of the Livestock Economy
As of the early 1980s, prices for imported livestock drugs increased as a result of the depreciation of the currency. The World Bank encouraged the exaction of user fees for veterinarian services to the nomadic herdsmen, including the vaccination of animals. A private market for veterinary drugs was promoted. The functions performed by the Ministry of Livestock were phased out, with the Veterinary Laboratory Services of the ministry to be fully financed on a cost-recovery basis. According to the World Bank:
Veterinarian services are essential for livestock development in all areas, and they can be provided mainly by the private sector. (... Since few private veterinarians will choose to practice in the remote pastoral areas, improved livestock care will also depend on "para vets" paid from drug sales.'
The privatization of animal health was combined with the absence of emergency animal feed during periods of drought, the commercialization of water and the neglect of water and rangeland conservation. The results were predictable: the herds were decimated and so were the pastoralists, who represent 50 percent of the country's population. The "hidden objective" of this program was to eliminate the nomadic herdsmen involved in the traditional exchange economy. According to the World Bank, "adjustments" in the size of the herds are, in any event, beneficial because nomadic pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa are narrowly viewed as a cause of environmental degradation."
The collapse in veterinarian services also indirectly served the interests of the rich countries: in 1984, Somalian cattle exports to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries plummeted as Saudi beef imports were redirected to suppliers from Australia and the European Community. The ban on Somali livestock imposed by Saudi Arabia was not, however, removed once the rinderpest disease epidemic had been eliminated.
Destroying the State
The restructuring of government expenditure under the supervision of the Bretton Woods institutions also played a crucial role in destroying food agriculture. Agricultural infrastructure collapsed and recurrent expenditure in agriculture declined by about 85 percent in relation to the mid-1970s." The Somali government was prevented by the IMF from mobilizing domestic resources. Tight targets for the budget deficit were set. Moreover, the donors increasingly provided "aid", not in the form of imports of capital and equipment, but in the form of "food aid". The latter would in turn be sold by the government on the local market and the proceeds of these sales (i.e. the so-called "counterpart funds") would be used to cover the domestic costs of development projects. As of the early 1980s, "the sale of food aid" became the principal source of revenue for the state, thereby enabling donors to take control of the entire budgetary process."
The economic reforms were marked by the disintegration of health and educational programmes.'3 By 1989, expenditure on health had declined by 78 percent in relation to its 1975 level. According to World Bank figures, the level of recurrent expenditure on education in 1989 was about US$ 4 Per annum per primary school student down from about $ 82 in 1982. From 1981 to 1989, school enrolment declined by 41 percent (despite a sizeable increase in the population of school age), textbooks and school materials disappeared from the class-rooms, school buildings deteriorated and nearly a quarter of the primary schools closed down. Teachers' salaries declined to abysmally low levels.
The IMF-World Bank program has led the Somali economy into a vicious circle: the decimation of the herds pushed the nomadic pastoralists into starvation which in turn backlashes on grain producers who sold or bartered their grain for cattle. The entire social fabric of the pastoralist economy was undone. The collapse in foreign exchange earnings from declining cattle exports and remittances (from Somali workers in the Gulf countries) backlashed on the balance of payments and the state's public finances leading to the breakdown of the government's economic and social programs.
Small farmers were displaced as a result of the dumping of subsidized US grain on the domestic market combined with the hike in the price of farm inputs. The impoverishment of the urban population also led to a contraction of food consumption. In turn, state support in the irrigated areas was frozen and production in the state farms declined. The latter were slated to be closed down or privatized under World Bank supervision.
According to World Bank estimates, real public-sector wages in 1989 had declined by 90 percent in relation to the mid-1970s. Average wages in the public sector had fallen to US$ 3 a month, leading to the inevitable disintegration of the civil administration." A program to rehabilitate civil service wages was proposed by the World Bank (in the context of a reform of the civil service), but this objective was to be achieved within the same budgetary envelope by dismissing some 40 percent of public-sector employees and eliminating salary supplements." Under this plan, the civil service would have been reduced to a mere 25,000 employees by 1995 (in a country of six million people). Several donors indicated keen interest in funding the cost associated with the retrenchment of civil servants."
In the face of impending disaster, no attempt was made by the international donor community to rehabilitate the country's economic and social infrastructure, to restore levels of purchasing power and to rebuild the civil service: the macro-economic adjustment measures proposed by the creditors in the year prior to the collapse of the government of General Siyad Barre in January 1991 (at the height of the civil war) called for a further tightening over public spending, the restructuring of the Central Bank, the liberalization of credit (which virtually thwarted the private sector) and the liquidation and divestiture of most of the state enterprises.
In 1989, debt-servicing obligations represented 194.6 percent of export earnings. The IMF's loan was cancelled because of Somalia's outstanding arrears. The World Bank had approved a structural adjustment loan for US$ 70 million in June 1989 which was frozen a few months later due to Somalia's poor macro-economic performance. '7 Arrears with creditors had to be settled before the granting of new loans and the negotiation of debt rescheduling. Somalia was tangled in the straightjacket of debt servicing and structural adjustment.
Famine Formation in sub-Saharan Africa: The Lessons of Somalia
Somalia's experience shows how a country can be devastated by the simultaneous application of food "aid" and macro-economic policy. There are many Somalias in the developing world and the economic reform package implemented in Somalia is similar to that applied in more than 100 developing countries. But there is another significant dimension: Somalia is a pastoralist economy, and throughout Africa both nomadic and commercial livestock are being destroyed by the IMF-World Bank program in much the same way as in Somalia. In this context, subsidized beef and dairy products imported (duty free) from the European Union have led to the demise of Africa's pastoral economy. European beef imports to West Africa have increased seven-fold since 1984: "the low quality EC beef sells at half the price of locally produced meat. Sahelian farmers are finding that no-one is prepared to buy their herds"."
The experience of Somalia shows that famine in the late 20th century is not a consequence of a shortage of food. On the contrary, famines are spurred on as a result of a global oversupply of grain staples. Since the 1980s, grain markets have been deregulated under the supervision of the World Bank and US grain surpluses are used systematically as in the case of Somalia to destroy the peasantry and destabilize national food agriculture. The latter becomes, under these circumstances, far more vulnerable to the vagaries of drought and environmental degradation.
Throughout the continent, the pattern of "sectoral adjustment" in agriculture under the custody of the Bretton Woods institutions has been unequivocally towards the destruction of food security. Dependency vis-à-vis the world market has been reinforced, "food aid" to sub-Saharan Africa increased by more than seven times since 1974 and commercial grain imports more than doubled. Grain imports for sub-Saharan Africa expanded from 3.72 million tons in 1974 to 8.47 million tons in 1993. Food aid increased from 910,000 tons in 1974 to 6.64 million tons in l993.
"Food aid", however, was no longer earmarked for the drought-stricken countries of the Sahelian belt; it was also channeled into countries which were, until recently, more or less self-sufficient in food. Zimbabwe (once considered the bread basket of Southern Africa) was severely affected by the famine and drought which swept Southern Africa in 1992. The country experienced a drop of 90 percent in its maize crop, located largely in less productive lands." Yet, ironically, at the height of the drought, tobacco for export (supported by modem irrigation, credit, research, etc.) registered a bumper harvest. While "the famine forces the population to eat termites", much of the export earnings from Zimbabwe's tobacco harvest were used to service the external debt.
Under the structural adjustment program, farmers have increasingly abandoned traditional food crops; in Malawi, which was once a net food exporter, maize production declined by 40 percent in 1992 while tobacco output doubled between 1986 and 1993. One hundred and fifty thousand hectares of the best land was allocated to tobacco .2' Throughout the 1980s, severe austerity measures were imposed on African governments and expenditures on rural development drastically curtailed, leading to the collapse of agricultural infrastructure. Under the World Bank program, water was to become a commodity to be sold on a cost-recovery basis to impoverished farmers. Due to lack of funds, the state was obliged to withdraw from the management and conservation of water resources. Water points and boreholes dried up due to lack of maintenance, or were privatized by local merchants and rich farmers. In the semi-arid regions, this commercialization of water and irrigation leads to the collapse of food security and famine.
Concluding Remarks
While "external" climatic variables play a role in triggering off a famine and heightening the social impact of drought, famines in the age of globalization are man-made. They are not the consequence of a scarcity of food but of a structure of global oversupply which undermines food security and destroys national food agriculture. Tightly regulated and controlled by international agri-business, this oversupply is ultimately conducive to the stagnation of both production and consumption of essential food staples and the impoverishment of farmers throughout the world. Moreover, in the era of globalization, the IMF-World Bank structural adjustment program bears a direct relationship to the process of famine formation because it systematically undermines all categories of economic activity, whether urban or rural, which do not directly serve the interests of the global market system.
(for footnotes see Chapter in the Globalization of Poverty)
Labels: HUNGER, IMF, NEOLIBERALISM, SOMALIA, World Bank
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UN declaration on access to clean water has shamed NCC
By Joseph Mwenda
Fri 30 July 2010, 14:10 CAT
MISSION Press director Fr Drevensek Miha has said NCC delegates who laughed and rejected the constitutional clause that sought to give citizens the right to access to water and food should be ashamed following the UN's declaration passed this week making access to clean drinking water as a basic human right across the globe.
And United Nations ambassador and 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) advocate Marsha Moyo described as ridiculous the debate of whether clean and safe drinking water for every person should a priority, saying the matter was non-negotiable.
On Wednesday July 28, 2010, the UN General Assembly made a declaration that stated “Access to clean, safe drinking water is now an official basic human right everywhere in the world”, following a realization that globally, nearly 900 million people lack access to clean water while more than 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.
Speaking in an interview with The Post On-line, Fr Miha said the NCC delegates laughed at the Mung'omba draft constitution should now realise that they were laughing at their own children and grand children.
“The Constitution is the bible for a nation so it was most unfortunate that the majority of delegates laughed at that clause, it only means that they were laughing at their own children and grandchildren who will depend on that same clause,” Fr Miha said.
Fr Miha said the delegates’ altitude portrayed their arrogance and lack of concern for the Zambian people.
“They made an arrogant laughter, the most unfortunate laughter since independence... this shows that the MMD is trying to manipulate the Constitution,” he said.
Fr Miha said if the Zambian government will not adhere to the UN declaration, it means they do not adhere to the demands of their own children and the demands of the Zambian citizens.
And UN ambassador, Moyo said it was ridiculousness for delegates to debate on weather the access to clean water should be a basic human right in Zambia.
“Access to clean and safe drinking water should not be a privilege, but a right and so it is ridiculousness to discuss whether it is a priority in this day and age,” she said.
Moyo said the UN declaration was clear and would help Zambia contribute to MDG number seven which is aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability.
Labels: HUMAN RIGHTS, HUNGER, MIHA DREVENSEK, NCC
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Zambia, Zim partner on food security issues
By Fridah Zinyama and Namatama Mundia
Thu 11 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
ZAMBIA and Zimbabwe have entered a partnership that will see the two countries co-operating on food security issues. And the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has offloaded 100 metric tonnes of maize in Southern Province to mitigate the hunger situation in some parts of that province.
This followed a four-day meeting between the Grain Marketing Board and Zambia's Food Reserve Agency to discuss wide-ranging issues concerning national food security.
According to the Herald Newspaper of Zimbabwe, chairperson for Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe Tafadzwa Musarara, who attended the meetings, on Monday said local stakeholders had seen it necessary to approach regional food security bodies and find ways of boosting Zimbabwe's grain reserves.
Food Reserve Agency of Zambia chief executive Dr Antony Mwanaumo said his organisation was seeking new areas of co-operation with greater emphasis on food security. The two organisations will co-operate on silo rehabilitation and silo management, and training on grain trading among others.
GMB has been involved in rehabilitating Zambia's silos. The Zambian delegation expressed optimism on the growing level of co-operation between the two organisations.
In 2008, Zimbabwe had a maize deficit of 600 000 tonnes and imported part of the needed grain from Zambia.
And Choma district commissioner Laiven Apuleni confirmed in an interview on Tuesday that his office requested FRA to offload maize to the vulnerable people and schools whose food security had been affected by the bad rainfall pattern in areas bordering the Gwembe Valley.
“FRA has responded to our calls because people don't have food, they will only start harvesting the little remaining in their fields after March,” Apuleni said. “The selling of maize has started and it will go up to the end of February.”
He said a 50-kilogramme of maize was selling at K70, 000.
“Those who need to buy maize will have to get clearance from my office,” he said.
Apuleni said areas that were badly hit by hunger include Sinazongwe, Choma while places around the plateau had not been affected.
Meanwhile, Apuleni said the rehabilitations of the Choma-Chitongo road had commenced.
He said the rehabilitation works which were suspended last year because the contractor, China Geo Construction had gone on industrial break commenced last week and were expected to be completed in August this year.
Apuleni said the construction of the Choma District Hospital would be completed by June next year.
“They (contractors) are doing the foundation of the hospital now and the hospital will have all the major departments,” he said.
He also said two bridges-Ngonga and Munyeke which had been completed were now being used and that had cheered the people in the district.
Labels: FOOD, FRA, GRAIN MARKETING BOARD, HUNGER, ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE
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Lip servicing to agriculture
By Editor
Wed 10 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
AGRICULTURE still remains a very important part of our country’s economic development and food security.
Not only does agriculture tend to feed the entire population, it correlates and interacts with other related industries. A country is actually socially and politically stable with the availability of food. We have always said food security is a key requirement and no nation can effectively grow with a stable agricultural base while harbouring an army of hungry people.
Over the years, there have been many pronouncements from the government on developing the agriculture sector. In last year’s budget, finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane emphasised the need to build on various economic diversification programmes, which the government had pursued over the years.
Dr Musokotwane said the development of agriculture was one of the main pillars of the country’s poverty reduction programmes especially in rural areas. This year’s K16.7 trillion budget also hinges on enhancing growth through competitiveness and diversification and the government actually increased the allocation to the agriculture and livestock sectors to K1.139 trillion from last year’s K1.096 trillion.
However, all these allocations and pronouncements will not help the agriculture sector if some of the challenges faced by our farmers are not addressed. That is why we agree with the observation by Pemba UPND member of parliament David Matongo that the difficulty with implementing our country’s agriculture policy from theory is precisely the reason we are still a food deficit country. Matongo has touched on many areas such as the inputs distributions, reliance on rain-fed agriculture and animal diseases as some issues that need serious evaluation and reflection. We cannot agree with him more.
The country’s low performance in the agriculture sector is partly attributed to the high cost of inputs and the government has not made things any easier for our people. We are aware that the government has introduced the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), which now provides 200,000 farmers with cheap fertiliser. However, this country has other farmers who are not on that programme who still need affordable farming inputs. The government has neglected the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ), a company that could have helped the country with cheaper and readily available fertiliser to encourage more people to get into the agriculture sector.
In any case, the government spends half of the budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector on the FISP, which runs on imported fertiliser and yet NCZ needs far much less than this amount of money to be up and running. The reason for this is not difficult to understand when one critically examines who is involved in the importation of fertilisers and the benefits that go into their pockets.
Apart from the problem of inputs, the agriculture sector is affected by limited access to credit, inadequate infrastructure and extension services. We are aware that over 1,700 extension workers were recruited in 2008 and money was last year allocated for procurement of motorbikes and bicycles as well as construction of staff houses. However, farmers in rural areas still lack proper extension services for them to be able to run their farms effectively and ensure a meaningful yield without expert help.
The livestock sector has also suffered severely due to poor management and unending animal diseases which have almost become a perennial phenomenon. We are aware that the government has created a separate ministry specifically for livestock and fisheries and we hope this will help the sector, which has suffered numerous setbacks with farmers in Southern and Western provinces losing most of their animals. We have over the years continued to depend on imported vaccines and there is no talk of establishing a strong local livestock back-up vaccine production plant yet as a long-term solution to the problem of animal diseases. We still lack routine surveillance exercises which can help identify potential outbreak areas before an actual outbreak unlike in countries like Botswana where livestock disease control strategies are a general knowledge to every traveler and screening points are applied to all parts of the country whether there is an outbreak or not.
The country, in its quest to curb animal diseases, has also not taken advantage of the OIE terrestrial code that provides principles for the application of zoning and regionalisation in the control of infectious diseases based on sound risk assessments rather than risk avoidance.
These principles recognise that factors such as physical and geographical barriers and epidemiological considerations relevant to a particular disease are more appropriate mechanisms for defining areas from animal movement restriction or control. We do not even know how much local research has been applied in the epidemiological investigations of diseases that frequently break out in the country. What the country needs is a common voice and purpose of action that will save the beleaguered livestock industry.
There has also been a lot of concern about rain-fed agriculture and there have been calls for government to help promote irrigation. An irrigation fund was set up and it is now being managed by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission. We do not know how much has been done to promote irrigation and the matter will only be heavily debated when the country faces a drought.
The marketing system of farming produce is another area that still needs to be addressed to ensure that our farmers are given a just return for their labour. Those who grow our tomatoes, cabbages and other vegetables and fruits often have to endure the pain of seeing them rot due to lack of market.
These challenges in the agriculture sector actually make the industry very unattractive to private investment. As long as these issues are not addressed, we will continue to talk about developing our agriculture sector for many years to come instead of focusing on another sector.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the rural people and they need affordable inputs for them to be able to produce food for sale and consumption. Agriculture is also a critical component in the country’s efforts to reduce poverty and if the government wants to reduce the poverty levels further from the current 64 per cent, they need to pay special attention to this sector.
We have difficulties understanding the government’s commitment to growing the country’s economy because at times their pronouncements do not tally with their actions. In countries where agricultural productivity has risen, the fastest rates of economic growth have occurred. Actually, we need to understand that an increase in agricultural yields could go a long way in reducing the number of people currently living below the poverty datum line. Arguably, hunger and food insecurity have many causes often outside agriculture but it remains a vital contributor to national household food security.
Undoubtedly, food security is central to the country’s economic, political and social future and meeting the basic food needs of our people must be top priority in our government planning. Hunger is a sign of gross injustice and a block to development. We need to pay serious attention to our agriculture sector.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, CEEC, FISP, HUNGER, IRRIGATION
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Pemba MP explains Zambia’s food deficits
By Sututu Katundu
Wed 10 Feb. 2010, 10:50 CAT
PEMBA UPND member of parliament David Matongo has said the difficulty with
implementing the agriculture policy from theory is precisely the reason the country still has a food deficit.Matongo said apart from the weather patterns, the
marketing, pricing of agricultural produce and delivery of farming inputs had made parts of the country unproductive as far as food security was concerned.
“How do you deliver seed and fertiliser in the middle of November?” Matongo asked when he featured on Joy FM’s The People That Matter programme last week.
He said previously there were depots in the rural areas where fertiliser, seed and other inputs could be picked from and once the maize was ready, payments were made at those same spots.
However, he said the MMD government introduced a promissory note through the current marketing system.
Matongo observed that the cordon line between Angola and Zambia had been broken and animal diseases were spreading back and forth.
He said there had never been a serious attempt to eradicate cattle diseases particularly in the southern parts of Western Province and the diseases had spread to other parts.
Matongo wondered why the government could not plan ahead to curb hunger since the country was not food secure and a lot of money was usually spent on procuring food in times of a deficit.
“How come we have popularised situations like relief food to people who never liked relief food?” he asked.
He urged the government to deal with cattle diseases effectively. Matongo said the government had been paying lip service to food security, cattle diseases control, marketing of animals and agriculture products.
And Matongo said the decentralisation programme had not been properly implemented.
He wondered why monies allocated in Lusaka for Mazabuka should first be taken to Livingstone before they could finally reach the area.
“What happens to permanent secretaries who are highly graded? Why appoint district commissioners if they are not able to handle money at that level? If you put party cadres as permanent secretaries what would you expect at the expense of well-trained civil servants? The directors will simply undermine them and this is what is happening now,” Matongo said.
He advised leaders to respect those with opposing views and be open to discussion.
He said the Constitution was just a piece of paper that guided the country in terms of governance but leaders should have the will to lead their people.
Matongo said the Constitution was not a catalyst for economic development, saying the country could have the best Constitution in the world but it could be rendered worthless if they spent more than they earned.
He hoped the new constitution could help limit certain excesses of politicians and that the people given responsibility should be true to the provision of service to Zambians.
“Their faith in that is what I believe can pull us through out of hunger and lack of shelter, lack of decent drinking water and a small effective government in a decentralised fashion where the man in Kaputa, the man in Choma, the people elsewhere will see the budgetary value of government revenue and expenditure at base,” he said.
And Matongo said the UPND/PF pact would provide alternatives to better the lives of Zambians because the period between 1991 to 2001 was a lost decade, which would take time to recover.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, CATTLE DISEASE, DAVID MATONGO, FOOD, HUNGER, JOY FM
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Poor rainfall threatens food security among Goba people
By Namatama Mundia
Wed 10 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
CHIEFTAINESS Chiawa of the Goba people of Lusaka Province fears there will be food insecurity in her chiefdom because of the bad rainfall pattern.
In an interview yesterday, chieftainess Chiawa said the dry spell which Chiawa experienced dried most crops.
“There was drought in Chiawa when other parts of the country were receiving rains but again when rains started, they have been very heavy and have destroyed my people’s crops which were replanted during the drought period,” she said.
Chieftainess Chiawa called on the Partnership with Investment Project, a project where agribusiness technical assistance is offered to local farmers, to continue supporting the villagers with fertiliser, seed and farming equipment so that food insecurity is reduced.
“When investors saw the seriousness of farmers who had cleared land, they gave them caterpillars, seed and fertiliser and such projects are important because they reduce hunger,” she said.
Chieftainess Chiawa said the project has seen men and women do rotational guarding of their crops during day and night time so that they are not destroyed by hippos.
She said about 500x50 kilogrammes of maize were harvested during the last farming season from the same project.
Labels: CHIEFTAINESS CHIAWA, FOOD, HUNGER, RAINFALL
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Govts must address policies that create imbalances, advises GTAZ
By Kabanda Chulu in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Sun 29 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT
GRAIN Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ) executive director Jacob Mwale has advised regional governments to address policies that create imbalances in the marketing of agriculture commodities.
And Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Union SACAU chief executive director Ishmael Sunga has said food security will be difficult to be attained if certain basic fundamental are not addressed.
Giving a regional perspective from a traders' point of view during the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) second stakeholders meeting on Friday, Mwale said the prevailing mistrust between governments and traders should not be allowed to continue.
“We have to harmonise and find ways of working with governments and these imbalances should be addressed through good policies so that import and export restrictions are carefully planned. For instance, some governments can just wake up and say ‘don't import or export such and such a commodity’,” Mwale said.
“Actually these imbalances are creating instability in the market as you know traders react to conditions prevailing in the market hence the need for harmony among the stakeholders.”
He said it becomes difficult to operate in an environment which is not predictable.
“In some countries, government will just wake up and say we have entered the market buy such and such commodities and as traders, you are forced to sit on the fence and watch because governments should just create an enabling environment for the private sector to operate,” said Mwale.
And Eastern and Southern Africa Farmers Association representative Stephen Mushili said many farmers lack the capacity to position themselves to gain from the emerging market opportunities.
“Just last week the East African Community signed a customs union to result in a bigger market but farmers will not respond favourably since they lack capacity and they will not be in a position to influence the dynamics in these markets,” said Mushili.
And Sunga said in some instances, the marketplace was not fair to farmers due to lack of transparency in the value chain.
“The motivation for farmers is not necessarily to feed the nation but themselves and make income out of the surplus which they expect to realise good returns.
But sometimes the market is not fair and if the lack of transparency is not addressed in the value chain, then food security will not be attained,” said Sunga. “In this value chain, farmers are always in the receiving end due to low prices which are offered by other players.”
Labels: FOOD, GTAZ, HUNGER, JACOB MWALE
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Hunger crisis looms in Mambwe
Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 12:30
Mambwe District Commissioner Firimino Banda has appealed to government to send relief food to avert the looming hunger in the area.
Mr Banda said some households had already started rationing meals which are supplemented by mangoes. He was speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Mambwe district yesterday.
He disclosed that the District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) had already visited chief’s Msoro and Malama areas to assess the situation.
Mr Banda attributed the looming hunger to a partial drought and human-animal conflict experienced in the 2008/09 farming season where most of the crops were destroyed by wild animals.
“The larger part of the district is vulnerable to hunger because of the human-animal conflict. Even the mangoes which the people are takimg as supplement are also accessed by animals, especially elephants,” he said.
Mr Banda revealed that relevant authorities had already been notified of the looming hunger, adding that his team would soon visit other parts of the district to ascertain the amount of relief food needed.
“People are ready to work for the food if it is made available, especially where construction of classroom blocks is done at Mfuwe Basic School as parents are expected to contribute towards the construction works,” he said.
ZANIS
Labels: FIRIMINO BANDA, GAME PARKS, HUNGER, MAMBWE DISTRICT
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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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