FOOD SECURITY IN REGION I

1
FOOD SECURITY IN REGION I

• Report on a visit to Sinazongwe and Chiawa
  end-April 2004
• by
• Christopher Mufwambi
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

2
Factors affecting crop production

• Low rainfall and high temperatures (climate)
• Destruction of recessional winter gardens by
  creation of Lake Kariba
• Historical emphasis (and subsidies) on maize
  production rather than drought tolerant crops
  everyone still thinks maize
• Increase in population with resultant land
  pressure, erosion etc.
• Long term trend to even lower rainfall?
• Crop destruction by wild animals (esp. Chiawa)
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

3
Current interventions

• Distribution of maize, beans and sorghum to
  several thousand families (maize from GRZ, other
  from USAID)
• This food relief is as food for assets and is
  tied to the recipients adopting conservation
  farming (CF) this seems to be FAO idea
• Inputs for CF are also provided fertiliser
  and
• maize seed!
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

4
Current interventions (cont)

• Gwembe Tonga project, administered by ZESCO
• This is ostensibly compensation for the loss of
  livelihood inflicted upon the Valley Tonga by
  Kariba in the 1950s (!)
• It is focused on infrastructure development
  including electrification amongst the affected
  population
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

5
Problems with current approach

• The relief is denied to people who cannot
  provide the labour to farm i.e. it goes largely
  to young fit families and not to the truly
  vulnerable
• The continuing emphasis on maize inevitably
  results in crop failure in the current season
  the plantings failed twice before the third took
  a tenuous hold
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

6
Survival strategies and Income generating
activities

• Trading in manufactured groceries - mostly young
  men
• Trading in fish mostly women
• Six month seasonal cane cutting contracts at
  Nakambala Sugar Estates in Mazabuka - young men
• Illicit alcohol brewing exclusively women
• Trading in opaque beer from Livingstone and Choma
  breweries - mostly young men
• Fishing on Lake Kariba exclusively men
• Charcoal burning mostly men
• Prostitution boom at Sinazeze, Maamba and
  Sinazongwe - young women

7
Survival (cont)

• Cotton growing Sinazeze/ Malima area - all
  classes / age groups of people are involved
• Livestock rearing cattle, sheep and goats -
  mostly elderly people
• Livestock trading cattle, goats and sheep -
  mostly young men
• Poaching exclusively men
• Cannabis cultivation and trafficking both sexes
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

8
What should be done?

• Rain fed food cultivation emphasis should be on
  sorghum, bullrush millet, perhaps cassava not
  maize
• Rain fed cash farming esp cotton, perhaps
  tobacco - should be promoted since income food
  security
• Community demand for irrigation water should be
  supported (but intelligently)
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

9
What should be done? (cont)

• Livestock initiatives needed to improve quality
  of stock, grazing regimes, animal health,
  marketing
• Non-agricultural activities these are as
  important for food security as agricultural
  activities (though we need to understand how the
  money works through to food availability)
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

10
Principles

• Routine relief food distribution should only be
  targeted at the truly and chronically vulnerable
• Emergency food aid should only be distributed
  in true emergencies (e.g. a livestock wipe-out),
  not on the pretext of drought
• Interventions to improve food security should be
  aimed at lifting incomes and savings on the
  basis of activities that have proved to be
  economically sound (i.e. not maize production)
• An eye should be kept on the socio-medical
  implications of some economic activities e.g. HIV
  transmission in migrant workers or fish traders
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.

11
Institutions

• Identification of the needy, distribution etc.
  should involve organisations that are long
  embedded in the community e.g. hospitals, the
  established churches
• More community involvement and control might be
  achieved through the establishment of Trusts with
  co-opting of eminent citizens to assist
  community representatives
• GRZ should be more pro-active at Cabinet level in
  developing and administering policy
• Mano Consultancy Services Ltd.