In October, Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world to commemorate World Food Day with its message that healthy people depend on healthy food systems.
For one farmer in Goromonzi communal lands, however, there’s no need for a day to remind people of the realities of food insecurity. He battles daily with the effects of a dead agricultural sector in which farmers can barely feed their own families let alone find surplus to sell.
“Farming has been reduced to subsistence. People in this village have resorted to farming small pieces of land to feed their families. The agriculture sector is on its knees and the government must come up with working policies to improve food security,” said 67-year-old Isdore Munyati from Goromonzi. His huge portion of land has been under-used for the past five years.
Reports from communal villages across the country’s provinces are that villagers are now feeding on wild fruits, while others are trading their skinny cattle for maize. According to recent reports from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP), more than 2.2m people are facing severe food shortages and are undernourished.
FAO estimates that 890m people worldwide are facing food insecurities and one in every three children is chronically malnourished. Health experts report that women and children suffer most and, according to the United Nations in Zimbabwe, at least 4.4 per cent of children under the age of five are facing acute malnutrition.
“Poverty has been feminised as depicted by the higher prevalence of poverty among the female-headed households and high levels of malnutrition with children under five years, which has risen from 13 per cent in 1999 to more than 25 per cent in 2010,” reads the UNDP 2012 report.
During his remarks at the annual Harare Agriculture Show in August this year, President Mugabe said he was going to mitigate the effects of food insecurity in the country and government was responsible for measures aimed at subsidising agricultural inputs and supporting the land reform programme.
But agricultural experts maintain that the failing system needs complete rehabilitation.
The chief executive officer for the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), Charles Taffs, agrees that food insecurity in the country is a result of a failing agriculture system that needs government to commercialise the sector.
“The food insecurity that is affecting the country is not a result of drought conditions. We are in the same region as Zambia, but they are exporting food. The problem is that agriculture is not working. Banks need to get involved in agriculture in terms of direct funding for the farmers and thus develop the agriculture sector,” Taffs said.
In his view, government shouldn’t be giving money to farmers every year, but instead should put its energies into clear and relevant policies to regenerate agriculture.
Post published in: News