SAFADA SMELLS HUNGER IN ZAMBIA

By Jessica Mwansa

THE Small Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) says the Agency is worried about the food security in Zambia in the next 10 years.

In an interview with The Scoop, SAFADA Executive Director Boyd Moobwe said there would be a critical food crisis in Zambia due to various factors related to natural and artificial human characters.

Mr. Moobwe said dependence on donor funding for agriculture was another critical challenge that will affect national and household food security due to unstable global economy and political change and its influence on agriculture and world economy.  

 “Naturally, climate change is a big threat while human endeavour contradicts with possible solutions to respond to unpredictable farming practices and economics of agriculture in real terms. Political agriculture is one aspect that causes serious food insecurity in the country because of unstable policies and programs introduced to reactivate and harmonize the agriculture systems in the country,” he said.

 “The Government should begin to seriously engage the local agriculture scientists and researchers to start investigating possible solutions to respond to anticipated food crises in the country. Unchecked food production, processing, and pricing will contribute to artificial food insecurity hence the need for the Government to impose food security measures other than depending on the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) alone,” he said.

He said scientific measures to secure possible food production systems must be researched to mitigate possible food insecurity in the country adding that Zambia’s population growth rate potential was alarming.

“In 10 years’ time, the population in Zambia will defeat our ability to feed ourselves due to low food production systems and high demand for food hence the need to respond to possible scientific measures to ensure sustainable national and household food security in the country,” he said.

He said the agriculture sector in Zambia needed overhauling to make it more efficient and effective in the economy of the country.

“It is high time we strategized and employed effective modalities and mechanisms that will work to improve the agriculture performance and ensure its potential to grow the economy of Zambia. The way farming is done in Zambia is more traditional and politically-motivated making the sector more static and prone to deficiency on its output. Although a number of factors and farms are doing well, its impact on poverty reduction, food insecurity, and unemployment is not sufficient for sector growth and development,” he said.