RELIEF FOR KATETE

THE reported plight of over 20, 000 households facing starvation and in need of relief food calls for urgent Government intervention.

Although some of them have found themselves in this precarious situation out of their own making, others have been victims of adverse weather conditions.

But for whatever reason is responsible for their plight, they are now looking up to the government to help them.

According to the Katete District Commissioner, Mr Malan Tembo, the number of those needing relief food was arrived at after an assessment by the District Disaster Management Committee.

“After the assessment, we found out that more than 20, 000 households are in dire need of food because our farmers have stopped farming maize which is a staple food.

They have gone for the alternative which is soya beans because it has a lucrative price on the market,” Mr Tembo said.

The local leadership should be commended for for taking temporal measures to cushion those that were in desperate need of food by offloading maize from the Food Reserve Agency.

“We are doing community sales with the Food Reserve Agency but the quantities are low and only those that have the financial muscle are able to buy,” Mr Tembo said.

We hope that those who do not have the financial muscle to buy maize from FRA will not be left out.

We have in mind people like Ms Faneli Banda who is over 70 years old who lost all her reserve food after a heavy downpour. Her storage facility got filled up with water and hence, she has no food.

“I have no food as all my mealie meal was put in a drum and the drum got filled with water during a heavy downpour that ripped off the roof of the house. So, we have no food and we are just staying with hunger,” she said.

We understand the challenge that most villagers face throughout the country as they wait to harvest their crop while having lost their food in storage sheds.

As Ms Elizabeth Phiri, another affected farmer said, “In all truth, this month and the coming month, help us otherwise we will die. Give us mealie meal or even maize or rice so that we can have something to eat.”

It is clear that the government has a mammoth task to ensure that there is food security for the desperate villagers are now being forced to sell their crop to briefcase buyers whilst still fresh in the fields for them to feed their families.

We agree with Mr Tembo that selling their crop even before it was ready would be disadvantaging them by perpetuating the hunger situation.

Therefore, the government, while providing relief food could also help the villagers by sensitising them over the dangers of selling their crop before it is ready for harvest as it disadvantages them in the long run.

If anything, the plight of the Katete villagers could be replicated in other parts of the country hence the need for the government to be ready for any eventuality.