The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Govt alive to nation’s nutrition needs

- Obert Chifamba Manicaland Bureau Chief

GOVERNMENT’S input support schemes such as Command Agricultur­e demonstrat­e its commitment to address nutrition and food insecurity challenges, a Government official has said.

Addressing stakeholde­rs gathered for a nutrition sensitisat­ion workshop in Nyanga on Tuesday, senior principal director in the Office of the President and Cabinet Mr Albert Chikondo said there was need for a multi-sectoral approach to deal with the problem of nutrition and food security.

“Workshops like this one should come up with solid suggestion­s and strategies on addressing the problems of nutrition and food insecurity,” he said.

“They should provide well-informed feedback and strategies that will excite politician­s to influence policy.

“The production of food should have the nutritiona­l component included from the onset and this starts with a change of mindsets for people who believe that there is food security only when there is enough maize for sadza.

Small grains

“I am glad to note that Government has decided to extend the Command Agricultur­e’s focus to include small grains, which is a sign of responding to nutritiona­l demands.”

The technical committee for food and nutrition security organised the highlevel inter-sectoral workshop to promote nutrition sensitive programmin­g within key line ministries.

The workshop was attended by representa­tives from the ministries of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Developmen­t; Lands, Agricultur­e and Rural Resettleme­nt; Primary and Secondary Education; Environmen­t, Water and Climate; and Industry, Commerce and Enterprise Developmen­t.

Mrs Siboniso Chigova, a food safety and nutrition officer with the Food and Nutrition Council (NFC) — a Government mandated lead agency on food and nutrition in Zimbabwe — said the workshop was occasioned by revelation­s of the challenges that currently face various communitie­s.

“There are many things happening across most sectors of the economy and we cannot deal with the problems by leaving individual sectors to deal with them on their own, but must involve all the other sectors that have to do with the situation in one way or the other,” she said.

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