Spectre of hunger continues to hover over Zim

For Mulakanjoka, a pensioner whose paltry annuity is a drop in the ocean, tending the maize field near his home in Harare’s Mufakose high density suburb has become his lifeline as Zimbabwe’s food security situation remains critical.
With more than five million people in the country now in dire need of food handouts following several failed harvests, the current cropping season promises very little for the starving nation.
“Because of hunger, I have no choice but to consume most of the maize I have planted. Thieves have not spared me. They help themselves to part of the crop,” said Mulakanjoka.
Urban agriculture is now the order of the day.
The coming weeks will be critical for Mulakanjoka as he monitors his tussling maize crop at the edge of a huge swathe of other lush green fields in the area.
Tilling the small plot has not been easy. Although his plot is a stone’s throw away from one of Zimbabwe’s biggest fertiliser manufacturers, he could not afford to buy any of the company’s products opting instead to use manure.
But Mulakanjoka’s situation is not unique. It is a microcosm of the serious food crisis facing the country, with the result that most people will consume their maize crops as green mealies.
A substantial part will also be sold as cob maize as farmers try to raise money for other basics in an economy where the local currency is no longer regarded as a medium of exchange. Zimbabwe’s economy was recently dollarised after restrictions on trade in foreign currency were relaxed.
Farmers will undoubtedly be forced to sell produce before harvesting to acquire the stronger and more stable United States dollar and South African rand to cushion themselves against the prevailing runaway inflation last pegged officially in July last year at 231 million percent. The coming months will also be crucial for the country in the wake of dwindling international donor aid. Lost donor support money runs into millions of dollars. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) the World Food Programme (WFP) reduced its allocations to Zimbabwe in November with no food being availed for the whole of last month.
“Anecdotal evidence collected by the IFRC and other humanitarian actors highlights a worsening food insecurity situation, with coping mechanisms being depleted as food scarcity increases. Zimbabweans are apparently not just cutting down to one meal per day or even less but are also eating more wild fruits, such as baobab pods, hacha and marula (mapfura), and some are reported to be disposing their household assets,” reads part of the report.
Richard Lee, WFP’s Southern Africa spokesman has reportedly said: “The situation is not the same as when it was forecast in June 2008 and there are clearly more people in need of assistance, as the economic situation has worsened and deteriorated much more rapidly than anticipated. There are indications that the main harvest will be poor … but most people will harvest something to eat, for a short while at least.”
Although the Department of Agricultural Technical and Extensions Services says it is still compiling data on the crop situation in the country, poor planning which resulted in the late disbursement of inputs and a poorly performing economy, among other problems, have exacerbated the country’s food insecurity.
For many months now Zimbabwe has been importing all its maize requirements from South Africa but is apparently struggling to get back on its feet through increased agricultural production.
Policies that are out of sync with reality have also exacerbated food insecurity with, for example, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) being accused of stifling food production through the system it uses to pay farmers.
“Zimbabwe’s food security situation will remain precarious if our farmers continue to face protracted delays in getting their payments for deliveries made to the GMB,” said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono in his monetary policy statement last month. Strictly speaking, the letter and spirit for the creation of the GMB was and remains government’s desire to promote food security, particularly with respect to the building up of strategic grain reserves to cater for the needs of vulnerable groups in times of need.
“Under the liberalised framework, and consistent with the overall strategy of ensuring that our farmers are running viable operations, the GMB must act as the buyer of last resort, providing farmers with a fallback marketing alternative…For the purpose of strategic reserves, the GMB should leverage on its own internally generated revenues, as well as the limited financial resources as would be made available from the fiscus,” said Gono.  
Meanwhile Zimbabwe’s Grain Millers Association (GMAZ) is concerned that despite the authorities’ decision to loosen restrictions on the importation of grain and maize meal until June this year only about 30 percent of the country’s millers are in operation.
“Our biggest challenge is mobilising the finances to buy the grain,” said Tafadzwa Musarara, chairperson of GMAZ. However, despite the many problems affecting the agricultural sector and given the fact that a meaningful summer crop harvest is most unlikely, it is hoped that the new policies recently introduced by Zimbabwe will boost production of especially the winter crop which is also critical to Zimbabwe’s food security. In his lengthy monetary policy statement last month the RBZ Governor pointed out that farmers were now allowed to market and sell their produce in foreign exchange “in order to promote the viability of agricultural operations”.
“All pricing distortions in agricultural produce, which previously necessitated ad-hoc price top-ups which we were always unhappy with, have been removed and farmers can now receive import parity prices (net of transport and other intervening charges relating to import costs) without reference or recourse to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
“Farmers should with immediate effect not look to the central bank or government inputs as a right but form themselves into procurement syndicates and plan to do things on their own…As monetary authorities, we call upon all willing development partners to complement our internal efforts aimed at promoting food security. “A robust agricultural sector is also the most effective way of bringing about broad-based economic empowerment to the majority of the people, particularly those in the rural communities,” said Gono.