Government ensures relief aid, plus programmes to grow more food

Afundamental policy of the Second Republic is that no one goes hungry, ever, so those households short of food receive help, usually rations of grain while a number of urban families receive modest money payments so they can buy food.

In rural areas it is more obvious to distribute grain to the vulnerable households, since the whole set up is built around the grinding mills and other requirements of farmers who grow their own grain, and the food relief is largely there to fill a gap between what was harvested last season and when the next harvest is due.

There are some special additional households who need more permanent support, such as the elderly, the infirm and the childheaded households, and these are the households who require assistance. But generally the food aid is a supplement to what a family can grow itself, or can earn through other farming or productive activity.

A second important policy is that while there must be no one left to go hungry, as far as possible households should not become dependent on food aid, rather being given the means to grow enough food, or engage in agricultural or other productive activity so they earn enough to buy their food.

A cattle farmer, for example, might be on land where grain crops are a dubious proposition but earns a decent income from the livestock.

So among the major thrusts of the Second Republic was the creation and then the expansion of effective systems of smallholder farming, so that families could not only grow enough food, but have enough surplus for sale to earn the money they need to buy the other things they want and require.

This has been backed by a swathe of other schemes to upgrade livestock, along with the necessary veterinary backing to ensure that the animals are healthy, the poultry scheme and the horticultural schemes.

This is not only better for the families involved, as they do become self-supporting and start earning more money than they could ever expect as recipients of aid, but also makes sense economically since it is better use of national funds to help with inputs and rely on people to grow their own food, with enough for sale to those who earn their living outside farming.

The success of such programmes as Pfumvudza/Intwasa can be seen in that even after every vulnerable household has been counted in, only around 100 000 tonnes of food-relief grain are needed in the first three months of this year to supplement the supplies of 26 percent of the population, according to the figures given after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

The other 74 percent have grown enough food or earned enough money to buy enough food during the leanest times of the year, and this is a major advance in recent years.

About 2,71 million people need some help in the “hungry months”. The other 13,3 million are now self-supporting and need different Government programmes, basically doors being opened, opportunities created and a growing economy so that they can not just “make do” but prosper.

While almost all farming families did sign onto Pfumvudza for the present season, with a doubling of the number of plots created, the El Nino will almost certainly reduce harvests, although this is modified by the insistence of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development that farmers should grow grains appropriate for their ecological zones, which will help minimise harvest losses.

But already the necessary plans are in place to ensure that if families have suffered severe losses, there will be enough food available to keep them going until the harvests next year.

The base policy that no one goes hungry remains.

With climate change and the likelihood of more droughts and more dubious seasons, the Government is working at some speed on another policy, of building up the resources farmers have access to so they grow enough food for their families and the nation.

Irrigation is being expanded both through the construction of dams and the use of this impounded water in irrigation. Summer irrigation is now assuming greater importance.

This is being supplemented, as part of both the village upgrade strategy and the need to have more varied and better diets, with the village borehole programme. It was announced after the Cabinet meeting that about 10 000 more boreholes will be drilled this year, pushing the programme for at least one borehole in every one of the 35 000 villages ahead of schedule.

Besides ensuring that more families have practical and close access to safe water supply for drinking and household use, and that water is available for livestock, the boreholes are also designed to supply enough irrigation for a horticultural unit so the village can grow its own vegetables and again have some left over for sale.

There will always be people who need extra help, but the present Government policy of investing in the infrastructure and services will mean there are fewer emergencies that need to be sorted out, allowing continuing acceleration of economic growth.