Southern Africa 2018/19 Rainfall Amount Lowest In 38 Years

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region recorded the lowest rainfall in nearly four decades in the 2018-2019 cropping season, sparking fears of increased food insecurity and water shortages. A SADC Food Security Early Warning System Agromet update for the 2018-2019 cropping season indicates that a strong drought affected central and western parts of the region during the just-ended rainfall season.

Only a few areas in the SADC region received good rainfall for much of the season.These include northern Malawi, northern Mozambique, parts of Tanzania, and north-eastern Zambia. Three SADC countries had to declare a state of drought disaster due to the low rainfall. Namibia, which has been hit by successive droughts since 2013, has declared a state of emergency over the situation which has left more than 500 000 people without access to enough food and water. The country has lost more than 60 000 domestic animals over the past six months.

South Africa too has declared the current drought affecting some parts of its provinces a disaster. Tropical Cyclone Idai brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe between March 5 and 19, 2019, causing severe flooding which led to loss of lives, destruction of infrastructure, disruption of livelihoods and destruction of crops.

Full article...

Southern Africa region's cereal deficit

by Irene !Hoaës

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region recorded a drop of about 7 percent in cereal production from 33.81 million tonnes in 2011 to 31.47 million tonnes in 2012.

However, according to a brief of the SADC agricultural desk issued in August, this is slightly up by 2 percent compared to the past five-year average (2007–2011) cereal production.

Most countries, at least ten of twelve countries with data, have recorded decreases in cereal production in 2012, ranging from 1 percent in South Africa to as high as 60 percent in Lesotho when compared to cereal production in 2011.

Only Namibia and Tanzania had increased harvests in 2012 compared to 2011.

The poor crop production performance in many member states in the 2011/12 agricultural season has seen the region experiencing a cereal deficit of about 5.55 million tonnes in the 2012/13 marketing year, compared to a cereal deficit of 0.21 million tonnes in the 2011/12 marketing year.

All SADC member states except Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia recorded overall cereal deficits. Zambia recorded a cereal surplus of 1.11 million tonnes followed by Malawi with 0.56 million tonnes and Tanzania with 0.19 million tonnes.

For the first time since the 2006/07 marketing year, the region has recorded a maize deficit, assessed at 0.64 million tonnes, as regional availability of 28.86 million tonnes fall short of regional requirement of 29.49 million tonnes.

The current deficit is significantly the opposite of a maize surplus of 3.41 million tonnes recorded during the 2011/12 marketing year.

All countries have recorded maize deficits in the 2012/13 marketing year except Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The region also continues to register regional deficits in the other main cereal crops of wheat, rice, sorghum and millet.

full article...New Era

SADC establishes seed center

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has established a centre to address seed supply challenges in the region.

The SADC Seed Centre is aimed at facilitating the co-ordination and implementation of the regional Harmonised Seed Regulatory System (HSRS).

The centre is housed at the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre in Lusaka, Zambia, and is financially supported by the Swedish Development Co-operation (SDC) and United States Agency for International Development (USAid).

The HSRS, which was endorsed at the 2007 SADC Council of Ministers meeting, aims to increase the number of available seed varieties to farmers, promote investment in the seed sector, and make it easier and cheaper for seed companies to introduce seed varieties in other SADC member states.

In a statement issued last week, SADC Seed Centre interim co-ordinator, Kalipochi Kawonga, explained that the seed supply systems in the region are currently weak and the movement of seeds from one country to another is problematic due to fragmented regulatory frameworks.

"Access and availability of quality seeds to farmers continue to impede agricultural productivity in the region, despite agriculture being one of the most important sectors for economic development," he said.

Programme officer for cereal production at the SADC Secretariat, Simon Mwale, said the use of improved seeds amongst small-scale farmers is low and rarely exceeds ten per cent in most SADC member states, and yet these farmers produce up to 80 per cent of the key staple food crops in the region.

"If the regional HSRS is successfully implemented, both national and regional seed suppliers will find SADC a more attractive market with lower costs and simpler administration of seed trade," he said.

Overall benefits will include increased investments in the seed sector, increased seed production, access to more varieties, and increased competition.

Farmers will eventually be offered access to a wider portfolio of quality seed products at a more affordable price.

The SADC HSRS comprises three components, namely the SADC Crop Variety Release System; the SADC Seed Certification and Quality Assurance System, and SADC Quarantine and Phytosanitary Measures for Seed.

The SADC Variety Release System provides for a shorter period of testing and releasing on new varieties instead of the current system of testing new varieties for two to four years in each member state.

Under the HSRS, a variety ought to be released in two member states and thereafter that variety will qualify to be marketed in the entire SADC region where the agro-ecological conditions suitable for that specific variety are similar.

"This is an improvement to the current scenario where seed markets are segregated, small, and difficult to access. In each country a new variety must go through lengthy variety testing and release procedures before seed can be marketed," said Mwale.

In addition, seed companies are compelled to select only a few countries in which to invest in variety testing and release. However, this denies or delays farmers' access to new products.

The SADC Seed Certification and Quality Assurance System introduces the use of common terminologies, standards, procedures, seals, labels and a certification scheme in order to guarantee the production and sale of high quality seed throughout the region, while the SADC Phytosanitary Measures for Seed System promotes the safe movement of seed with respect to pests and diseases.

Mwale said the existing variations in national standards for seed certification and quality control and in quarantine and phytosanitary measures for seeds also complicate the trading of seed between countries and cause difficulties for the efficient movement of emergency seed consignments.

The HSRS seeks to address the aforementioned problems by integrating smaller and isolated national seed markets into one larger SADC market for seeds.

This, in turn, will promote the entry of new improved varieties in the region and ease the movement of quality seed from countries with surplus to countries in need of seed.

Bumper harvest expected in Tanzania, SADC states

by Wilfred Edwin

Food production in Tanzania is set to increase to 11.5 million metric tonnes, an additional 600,000 tonnes from last year's 10.9 million.

This is in line with other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which predicted recently that food security in the region had improved in 2009 compared with 2008 due to favourable weather.

The high food production figures have helped lower inflation, as the annual headline inflation rate for the year ended June 2009 decreased to 10.7 per cent, compared with 11.3 per cent in the year ended May 2009.

This was attributed mainly to the decrease of food inflation from 17.8 per cent in the year ended May 2009 to 17.0 per cent in the year ended June 2009.

Agriculture Minister Steven Wassira said in Dodoma that the government had formulated strategies to ensure that farmers produced surplus food. He said that food exports were still banned due to shortages across the country.

Even with the favourable situation, the minister told the House that the Ministry would mobilise farmers to grow drought-resistant crops such as millet, sweet potatoes and cowpeas in areas with scarce rainfall.

Mr Wassira said farmers will be taught modern ways of crop storage, and how to budget their food needs.

"To ensure that a bumper harvest becomes a reality, the use of hybrid seeds and application of better crop husbandry and government subsidies to six breadbasket regions of Iringa, Mbeya, Morogoro, Ruvuma, Rukwa and Kigoma will be stressed," he said.

He added that the private sector should import fertiliser in a new government initiative by Agriculture First.

The country needs at least 350,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser every year.

During the 2009/10 fiscal year, the government, through a food security project funded by a World Bank loan, will use $90 million to provide input subsidies.

The other $46 million of this is from the Accelerated Food Security Project and $44 million is from the recurrent budget, said the minister.

Under the Agricultural Sector Development Programme, the ministry will work with farmers at the district council level.

About 75 per cent of resources will be channelled to local authorities.

The minister said that implementation of the development policy will continue under the District Agricultural Development Programmes.

To implement this policy, the district councils will be directed on the amount of money that will be allocated to them.

Food security issues were also discussed by SADC Agriculture ministers in a meeting on May 21 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Said Mr Wassira: "The government has noted the progress made in increasing the availability and use of key agricultural inputs such as seed and fertiliser. In the past one year, negotiations on the development of a memorandum of understanding for implementing a harmonised seed regulatory system, which was approved in 2007, have been completed.

"The system aims at providing high quality seed to farmers to complement the efforts of member states in improving crop production and food security."

Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Dar-es-salaam Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security.

They said implementation of this declaration in the past five years had yielded positive results.

All Africa

SADC audits use of agro-inputs donated to Zimbabwe

The SADC Secretariat has embarked on a fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe to establish the extent to which such agricultural inputs as seed and fertilizer provided by the regional bloc to boost food production in the 2008/09 farming season were distributed.

As of Wednesday last week, 4 324 tonnes of seed had been delivered to GMB depots throughout the country out of a targeted 4 358 tonnes.

There is a balance of 34 tonnes of cowpeas seed yet to be delivered from South Africa.

Inputs distributed under the programme include fertilizer (Compound D and Ammonium Nitrate), maize, sorghum and cowpeas seed.

A committee comprising Government, farmer organisations, the private sector, United Nations agencies, churches and donors oversaw the non-partisan, transparent and efficient distribution of the inputs.

The Ministry of Agriculture was responsible for the distribution of the inputs with GMB providing storage.

In a statement Sadc executive secretary Dr Tomaz Salomao said the mission sought to establish the number of farmers who benefited from the Zimbabwe Human and Development Fra-mework programme.

"The guiding principle for the assistance from the Sadc member-states is that the distribution has to be non-partisan, transparent and efficient. The development assistance includes R300 million from the government of South Africa for agriculture inputs to assist the country to increase its agricultural production and food security,’’ said the statement.

The fact-finding mission follows the launch of the Zimbabwe Human and Development Assistance Framework tasked with managing the assistance that Sadc has provided to Zimbabwe since early this year.

The country also received a full consignment of fertilizer comprising 7 700 tonnes of Compound D and 4 300 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate. All the seed and fertilizer were sourced from South Africa. On its own, South Africa provided inputs worth R300 million.

Sadc launched the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development Assistance Framework on January 8 this year to manage assistance provided by the regional bloc as a counter to European Union-imposed illegal sanctions. This followed a plea by former South African president and Sadc-appointed facilitator in the Zimbabwean talks, Cde Thabo Mbeki, for the region to assist the country with inputs to ensure food security.

Sadc has been very supportive of Zimbabwe with the regional bloc resisting efforts by the West to adopt a confrontational approach on the country.

The Herald

Zimbabwe to defy SADC court's ruling on seized farms

The Zimbabwean government has said that it would ignore a ruling by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal to give back farms confiscated from a group of white farmers under its controversial agrarian reform programme.

The Zimbabwean government has seized thousands of farms from white farmers, who owned the bulk of the country's prime farming land, to resettle landless blacks.

A group of 78 white farmers challenged the seizure of the farms at the SADC Tribunal in Namibia, and won their case. But Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa said the government would ignore the ruling, including the tribunal's order that the authorities ensure and protect the property rights of the country's remaining 75 white farmers.

"They (farmers) are day-dreaming because we are not going to reverse the land reform programme," Mutasa said. He said that the government intended to acquire more farms for resettlement, ignoring the tribunal's order that the government stops fresh re-possessions of white-owned farms. "There is nothing special about the 75 (remaining white farmers) and we will take more farms. Its not discrimination against (white farmers), it is correcting land imbalances," he said.

In the ruling, SADC Tribunal Judge Louis Mondlane said that the government had irregularly acquired the farms belonging to the 78 white farmers, and the properties should be handed back to the owners.

Afriquenligne

SADC court orders Zimbabwe to stop land seizures

by Paulus Ashipala

A southern African tribunal recently ruled that Zimbabwe's planned seizure of dozens of white-owned farms violates international law and must be halted immediately. The ruling by the Southern African Development Community tribunal (SADC) in Windhoek, Namibia, came amid growing impatience in South Africa and elsewhere in the region with Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis.

"The applicants have been discriminated against on the grounds of race," the tribunal said in ruling in favour of more than 75 white Zimbabwean farmers who challenged the legality of a controversial land redistribution programme begun in 2000. "The (Zimbabwe) government is directed to take all necessary measures through its agents to protect the possession, occupation and ownership of the land by the applicants."

The tribunal also ordered that a handful of farmers whose land had already been confiscated should be compensated by June 30, 2009. The court's ruling will likely embarrass President Robert Mugabe's government but will almost certainly not divert Harare from its current plan to carry with its land reform programme.

Mugabe's government has seized thousands of white-owned farms and redistributed the land to poor blacks. The move has led to the collapse of the country's once prosperous agricultural sector, pushing millions to the edge of famine. Zimbabwean officials were not immediately available for comment on the ruling. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has previously said that no court will force him to reverse the land redistribution policy.

SADC, a regional grouping of 15 African nations that includes Zimbabwe, has been pressuring Mugabe and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change to move quickly to form a unity government under a Sept. 15 power-sharing deal. The two sides, however, have reached a deadlock over the control of key ministries in a future cabinet.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who defeated Mugabe in the first round of a March presidential election and then boycotted a second round won by Mugabe three months later, has accused the Zimbabwean ruler of trying to make the MDC a junior partner. South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, the frontrunner to become South Africa's president next year, have urged Mugabe and Tsvangirai to compromise for the sake of the Zimbabwean people. Zimbabwe is suffering from an official inflation rate of 231 million percent and chronic shortages of food and fuel. An estimated three million of its people have fled to neighbouring South Africa.

Reuters

SADC to set up regional grain reserve

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has announced plans to set up a regional grain reserve, while urging member states not to impose export restrictions on maize as the region grapples with high food prices.

"The recently held Integrated Committee of Ministers Meeting in Swaziland urged member states to remove restrictions. In fact, we have urged countries with surplus maize to sell their produce within the region," said Margaret Nyirenda, head of the SADC's Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate. "But at the end of the day it is a commercial decision - we can only advise member states to prioritise the region."

Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia all have imposed export restrictions and many other countries still have high import tariffs on maize. "These measures impede grain flowing from surplus to deficit areas within the region," said Thom Jayne, who teaches agricultural economics at Michigan State University (MSU) in the US.

"It is a travesty that 95 percent of all the grain imported by countries in sub-Saharan Africa is grown by farmers on other continents; only five percent of this grain comes from exports by neighbouring countries. This unfortunate situation is reinforced by a "beggar thy neighbour" approach to trade within the region," he said.

As an example of what regional trade can achieve, Jayne pointed out that in January 2005, "Kenya dropped its import tariff on maize from Uganda and Tanzania as part of the East African Commission trade agreement. There has been a notable improvement in maize price stability since that time."

Unrestricted cross-border movement of goods is on the cards: the SADC launched its free trade area on 17 August, in which 85 percent of goods produced and sold within the region will be exempt from customs duties.

This would apply to agricultural goods as well, said Boitumelo Gofhamodimo, acting head of the SADC's Trade, Industry and Finance Investment Directorate.

In a significant move, the SADC has revived plans to launch a strategic grain reserve to help bail out countries experiencing food shortages, as part of a pre-emptive strategy to minimise the impact of natural disasters on food security. Various models of the proposed facility are being negotiated; the strongest contender is based on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Emergency Rice Reserve, established in the late 1970s.

In the Southern African model a 500,000 metric tonne facility, including a cash component for countries that do not have any surplus to contribute, would be set up. About 75 percent of the reserve will comprise food in kind, while the remaining 25 percent will be in the form of cash.

"The reserve, which will include a combination of cereals, will be kept in several selected countries to provide easy access around the region," said Nyirenda. The reserve is to be run by a board, and officials hope to get the facility operational by mid-2009.

Three SADC countries - Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique - have established a regional food company funded by the World Bank's Global Food Crisis Response Facility. Under this initiative, Mauritius and Madagascar, which have limited agricultural land, plan to grow food in Mozambique.

"We support such bilateral initiatives to boost food security, but we are concerned in instances where land is being leased or purchased for biofuel production at the expense of food production," said Nyirenda. "We are busy formulating a regional policy on biofuel."

IRIN

Botswana agriculture anxious about effect of SADC Free Trade Area

A few days after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) became a free trade area, fears are mounting that the move may spell doom for Botswana's agricultural industry.

A study is now being commissioned by the Botswana Agricultural Union (BAU) to find ways government can help sustain rural livelihoods in the face of external competition.

BAU chairman, Phillip Fischer, said the elimination of import duties would seriously threaten the beef, dairy, small stock, piggery, poultry, ostrich, grains, and horticulture industries. He said under the SADC Free Trade Area, agricultural products are not eligible for preferential treatment.

Following the announcement at the recent SADC heads of state summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, the BAU is commissioning a sector-wide study to assess the nature and extent of adverse effects on Botswana's eight commodity value chains (CVCs) that will be caused by the elimination of tariffs. Upon completion, the document will be presented to government, outlining the adverse effects of elimination of the tariffs, as well as how government can assist the local industry to survive the challenges.

"As no adjustment strategies have been developed or implemented in anticipation of the inevitable elimination of tariffs under the SADC Protocol on Trade, it is anticipated that the elimination of tariffs, and in particular, the elimination of Botswana's import permit system under the Control of Goods Act, will adversely of effect all eight of our agricultural commodity value chains," the BAU chief says.

Fischer is sceptical about remedial measures on local industry as proposed in Article 20 of the SADC Free Trade Act. It does not only override the existing SACU infant industry protection law, but the article in question says governments can only safeguard their industries if there is evidence that the affected industry is adjusting to competition.

The proposed study will, among others, assess the immediate adverse economic and social effects of eliminating tariffs on each agricultural sector, as well as the potential commercial viability of each sector without tariffs. For those sectors that have the potential to be competitive without tariffs, the BAU is seeking adjustment strategies to enhance and sustain their competitiveness.

The BAU study will also look at how to assist producers in those inherently uncompetitive sectors so they can dump their businesses and migrate to competitive sectors. For those producers who cannot migrate to competitive sectors, the BAU is seeking social strategies to prop up rural livelihoods.

Mmegi

Zambian company imports fertiliser for regional market

Zambian distribution company Nyiombo Investments Limited plans to supply over 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser to four countries in the Southern Africa region through government arrangement and on the open market.

Nyiombo sources the fertiliser from Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine and intends to sell it in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

Company official Mr. Martin Chaikatisha said Nyiombo had been offered a contract by Zambia's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to supply 40,000 tonnes of fertiliser for the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP). Out of the 100,000 tonnes it will supply to the Zambian market, 60,000 tonnes would be sold on an open market at a competitive price.

He said the company had a similar arrangement with the Malawian government to supply 45,000 tonnes. Mozambique and Tanzania are expected to receive 50,000 and 20,000 tonnes respectively.

Zambia Daily Mail

More white Zimbabwean farmers seek expropriation relief from SADC Tribunal

The South African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal will decide on March 28 whether to accept more applications by white Zimbabwean farmers contesting seizure of land by the government.

The regional court last December temporarily barred the Harare government from confiscating land from a white farmer, Michael Campbell, pending the hearing of an application by the farmer challenging the legality of President Robert Mugabe’s programme to seize white land for redistribution to landless blacks.

Tribunal Registrar Charles Mkandawire this week said that 77 more farmers had appealed to the court to hear their cases together with that of Campbell, which is scheduled to be heard at the end of May.

Mkandawire said: “The applications by the 77 farmers who want to have their cases joined with the Campbell case were heard (on March 25). The case has now been adjourned for ruling on whether they should be joined and whether they should also be granted a relief in a ruling to be delivered on March 28.”

Campbell, whose case was initially set for March 26 but had to be rescheduled because of Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections, wants the Tribunal to declare Zimbabwe’s land reforms racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty.

Article 6 of the regional Treaty bars member states from discriminating against any person on the grounds of gender, religion, race, ethnic origin and culture.

A ruling declaring land reform illegal would have far reaching consequences for Mugabe’s government, opening the floodgates for thousands of claims of damages by dispossessed white farmers.

Such a ruling could also set the Harare government on a collision course with its SADC allies particularly if it – as it has always done with court rulings against its land reforms – refuses to abide by an unfavourable Tribunal judgment.

Farm seizures are blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food shortages after the government displaced established white commercial farmers and replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded black farmers.

ZimOnline

African biofuels debate must encompass more than just agricultural issues

The need to look beyond an agricultural paradigm and embrace a more holistic view of biofuels was one of the points highlighted by Southern African Biofuels Association (Saba) president Andrew Makenete at the third annual biofuels conference last week.

Makenete commented that the biofuels debate had been too narrow, and that the solutions had focused mainly on the role of farmers, without taking into account all the potential producers. He said he believed that this mindset and framework needed to be challenged.

Makenete stressed that there had not been a proper biofuels framework in Africa. He said that Africa, unlike the rest of the world, wanted to “bite big problems with big solutions,” rather than tackling the biofuels issues incrementally. He also noted that, while the level of awareness of biofuels in Africa had generally improved, the bio- fuels lobby had not been as successful as was hoped in promoting biofuels growth in Africa.

“The lobbyists need [not only] to promote, but also to work on market development. Biofuels development will be so much harder if South Africa does not assist in promoting biofuels properly,” he said.

Makenete stressed the need to build new biofuels alliances that were inclusive of all relevant stakeholders and groups, such as trade unions, farmers’ unions, and consumer groups, so that all relevant interests could be brought to the party. He added that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) needed to have consensus going forward, so that business could view the SADC as one entity, rather than as competing countries.

Further, Makenete said that more could still be done strategically at a regional level.

“We need to be joint partners in the SADC going forward, and ensure that the biofuels industry in Southern Africa does not pre- sent a suboptimal or speculative investment opportunity. We all need to speak the same language,” he said.

Makenete noted that, outside Africa, Brazil and the US had led the way in biofuels production. The US had focused heavily on maize, and had overtaken Brazil in ethanol production. The European Union (EU) had hit a ceiling, he said, and most nations would miss their target of 5% growth by 2008 by a significant margin. He said that China had developed biofuels remarkably, but was constrained by a lack of land and natural resources, and was more likely to play the role of buyer, rather than producer.

Makenete said that, in the bio- fuels realm, developed societies were concerned about various issues, such as energy security, climate change, opportunities for markets for agricultural produce, clean and renewable energies, and renewable raw materials.

Developed countries also viewed biofuels development in different ways, he said. The US had surged ahead with its biofuels framework, mainly concerning itself with whether or not biofuels production was profitable for the country’s farmers, while the EU had adopted a more pragmatic approach.

He believed that, in the SADC region, in general, there needed to be more action and less talk with regard to biofuels. He said that South Africa needed to “step up to the plate” in the region . For example, he said, Mozambique had plenty of land available for biofuels production.

Engineering News

SADC, ECOWAS to share notes on agricultural policy

A delegation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) arrives in Nigeria for the ECOWAS Commission on Monday, 3rd March 2008 to undertake a study of the ECOWAS Common Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP).

Regional leaders approved ECOWAP in 2005 as a mechanism for the coordinated development of agriculture in the region. It targets three major areas of intervention with the objective of boosting production, improving food availability, enhancing the competitiveness of regional agriculture, integrating markets for agricultural products and improving access of regional farmers to the international market.

The 14-member SADC is in the process of developing a similar policy for countries in its region. The visit of the four-member delegation will therefore enable the delegation to learn from the ECOWAS experience in the implementation of the policy.

Officials of the ECOWAS Department of Agriculture will brief the delegation, which also includes a consultant from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) that recommended ECOWAP to the SADC during the visit. They will then meet with key officials, including the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

During the four-day tour, they will also visit two big farms in Nigeria, including that of the former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

New Liberian

Hunger, HIV/AIDS and agriculture in Southern Africa

Hunger and HIV/AIDS are reinforcing each other in Southern Africa, "leading to a potentially tragic new level of famine," says a book published by a regional agricultural think-tank. The World Bank's annual report, released last week, also raises concerns over the pandemic's impact, pointing out that most people affected by HIV and AIDS depend on agriculture.

Food consumption has been found to drop by 40 percent in homes afflicted by HIV/AIDS, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); globally, Southern Africa is the region most affected by the pandemic.

The situation has been exacerbated by severe drought in Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and southern Mozambique this year, with significant production deficits and high staple food prices limiting market access for households that have already run out of food they have managed to grow themselves.

AIDS has killed around 7 million agricultural workers since 1985 in the 25 hardest-hit countries, mostly in east and southern Africa, where AIDS-related illnesses could kill 16 million more before 2020, and up to 26 percent of their agricultural labour force within two decades, said the FAO.

Often described as "new variant famine" or "HIV-induced famine," this form is radically different from traditional famines, said the book, Silent Hunger: Policy Options for Effective Responses to the Impact of HIV and AIDS on Agriculture and Food Security in the SADC Region.

"The paradox is that while the traditional drought-related famines kill dependents first (children and elderly), the HIV-related 'silent hunger' affects the most productive family members first."

The book is based on a study commissioned by the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) on the impact of HIV and AIDS in the seven most affected countries in Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Alex de Waal, an activist and writer, and Alan Whiteside, director of the HIV/AIDS research division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa, were the first to outline the "new variant famine" concept.

The FANRPAN book is critical of regional governments' response to the "invisible famine", which they describe as "slow" and inadequate", and presents a case for prioritising social protection.

In one of the first comprehensive studies on the impact of the pandemic on agriculture in the region, the book has uncovered some startling facts: in Botswana, the majority - 81 percent of respondents - had three or more meals per day before they contracted HIV, but after they became ill this dropped to 49 percent.

Approximately two people-years of labour have been lost by the time one person dies of AIDS, due to their weakening and the time others spend giving care, said the book, citing various studies.

James Breen, an agronomist based in Southern Africa, said, "Forty percent of the population in some of the countries in the region live with the HIV/AIDS, and at least 70 [percent] to 80 percent of the region's population depend on subsistence agriculture. At the best of times, small-scale farmers can expect subsistence, but with impact of natural disasters or, worst of all, HIV/AIDS, they have to liquidate all their assets for treatment, and they have no access to safety nets."

The authors of Silent Hunger commented: "Due to cultural and social traditions, women bear the brunt of the epidemic, both in terms of providing care for people living with HIV and AIDS as well as being at risk for HIV infection." UNAIDS has estimated that 57 percent of people living HIV and AIDS in southern Africa are women.

Of the seven countries participating in the study, four - Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia - reported that most rural households were led by women; the exceptions were Swaziland, Zambia and Lesotho.

In Swaziland, gender inequality and poverty have contributed to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. "The practice of polygamy increases the risk of women being infected. Women are also tasked with the responsibility of caring for the sick members of the household, which also increases the risk of getting infected," said De Waal and Whiteside. "When the man falls sick, it is the responsibility of the wife to provide care and take on additional duties to support the family. However, when the wife becomes sick, it is traditionally the responsibility of other women (not the husband) to provide care."

The book quoted a woman small-scale farmer in Botswana as saying, "I have not ploughed for the past five years because of taking care of AIDS children, who eventually died. So not only have I lost my children, but I have no food or seeds to start production. The sad thing is that my small [live]stock also strayed while I was running from one health provider to the next in the hope of saving my children."

In Zimbabwe, the FANRPAN study found that, traditionally, women were dispossessed of their land or assets after the deaths of their husbands, and continuation of the practice means they are left with little or no assets.

According to Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, the executive director of FANRPAN, southern Africa needs longitudinal household surveys that will track the impact of the pandemic on agriculture and food security. "We need trends analyses if we are to adequately inform policy development. Short term ad hoc studies are not giving a full picture of the pandemic’s impact".

IRIN

Chinese firm to set up tractor assembly plant in Zambia

A Chinese manufacturing firm is to set up a tractor assembly plant in Zambia to serve the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

Benye Tractor Corporation mainly specialises in 20 to 80 horsepower tractors.

S.K. Agri Supplies Limited 'Zambia) board chairman, Sebastian Kopulande said, “In the near future, the Benye Tractor will be assembled in Zambia to serve the SADC region.” S.K. Agri Supplies is the exclusive franchise of the products of Benye Tractor Corporation.

Kopulande was speaking during the official launch of S.K Agri Supplies Limited at the 81st Agricultural and Commercial Show in Lusaka. The partnership between S.K Agri Supplies Limited and Benye Tractor Corporation had been facilitated with lease finance from Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited.

Kopulande, who is also chairperson of the Zambia-China Business Association, said the co-operative movement was the anchor of the future of agriculture in Zambia and therefore needed support from both the private sector and Government.

Agriculture minister Ben Kapita said there was need for the private sector in the country to provide small and affordable tractors and other farming equipment to small-scale farmers. “Farmers are tired of tilling the land by hoe. The hand hoe is not only strenuous, but very limiting in terms of expansion of hectarage under cultivation. It is my hope that companies such as S.K Agri will play a leading role in supplying small but affordable tractors to small scale farmers,” he said.

S.K Agri would also supply irrigation, agro processing, and power generation equipment, as well as farm transport and forklifts, motorcycles and bicycles.

Zambia Daily Mail

SADC urged to match food production, population growth

Agriculture ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have called on the member countries of the regional group to match food production and population growth.

Zambian agriculture minister Ben Kapita said that the region will continue to look to other countries for food imports if it fails to match population growth with agriculture output. He minister said although the region has enjoyed more than 20 years of regional cooperation, it has not yet attained satisfactory levels of food security and economic development.

The region is currently faced with the challenges of increasing agricultural financing and investment, enhancing production and productivity in crops, livestock and fisheries and strengthening disaster preparedness. It also faces the challenge of improving access to agricultural productive land and other key inputs such as seed and fertilizers.

SADC deputy executive secretary Joao Caholo said with 70 percent of the estimated 240 million people depending on agriculture, there is need to put in place goods management polices aimed at driving the region out of hunger and poverty. "There is need for intensification and use of production enhancing and research proven technologies to meet the demands of the increasing
population and the resultant rise in demand for goods and services," he said. Caholo also noted the region's food security was not encouraging as some countries experienced drought in the last farming season.

The region has a cereal deficit of 4.35 million tons in 2007/ 2008 as compared to 2.18 million tons recorded in 2006/2007 farming season, according to him.

People's Daily

GMO products spread in Southern Africa : Study

Genetically Modified Organism products and seed are fast spreading into most Southern African countries which lack the technological capacity to screen and detect GMOs, a new study has revealed.

A preliminary GMO Spread Survey report done by the Biotechnology Trust of Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Community Technology Development Trust, Tobacco Research Board and other research institutes in Zambia, Namibia and Swaziland even shows areas where GM crops are suspected to be grown. The 12-month GMO Spread Survey was done in five Southern African countries that included Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe between January and December 2006.

Sources said the survey was conducted to identify potentially modified products in these selected countries and to identify modes and mechanisms of entry as well as distribution of GMOs in the five countries.

A total of 229 questionnaires were distributed and survey responses of about 27 percent were achieved mostly from experts in the field of biotechnology. "The results obtained from this survey are preliminary and should not be generalised for countries where the survey was done. Rather these are the views of the respondents. "These results, though, are indicative of the situation in the region and give a reflection of the population," the GMO Spread Survey preliminary report stated.

The major concern cited in all the countries under the study was human health and safety (30 percent), followed by fear of contamination of indigenous resources by GMOs (26 percent). About 10 percent of the respondents were worried that GMOs would be used to undermine the country's economic and political sovereignty, while 5 percent were concerned at the lack of policy to regulate biotechnology.

Suspected GMO products in the five countries included maize, cotton and soyabean, livestock feed, tobacco, bananas, potatoes, poultry products and vegetables.

The report noted that there is no distinction between yellow and white maize despite the fact that South Africa, the identified source of maize food aid, targeted yellow maize for GMO production. South Africa has embraced GMOs and as the region's strongest economy, scientists say it could be the portal for them entering the rest of the continent- no matter what individual nations may do, industry watchers and activists say.

Most African countries still have reservations about genetically modified foods and seeds, and only a few countries allow them legally despite having no capacity to prevent their spread. In the five countries under the GMO Spread Survey, locations where suspected GMO plants are believed to be grown were those mostly under research and food aid recipient locations, in addition to border areas.

Opponents of GMOs in Africa fear that the continent's farmers could lose market access to Europe. European consumers are quite sensitive to GMO foods despite commercial claims that they are safe. Agricultural experts say if Africa turns to GMO seeds and foods, Europe may not buy them. Most African countries also have concerns about possible unknown side effects of using GMO products and seed.

Researchers of the GMO Spread report said a policy framework needs to be developed to cater for official border areas as well as illegal and unconscious ways of importing GMO products for farming purposes. They also suggested that awareness be raised among officials at border posts in addition to farmers regarding the possible contamination of their field crops by GMOs.

Most people in these five countries and others in the anti-GMO camp are worried by the unregulated movement of foodstuffs through informal trade networks across South Africa's porous borders which fast spread into the entire region. "South African borders are porous and people take food home with them for sale or for consumption," says Leslie Liddell, director of the NGO Biowatch South Africa. "Millions of people from neighbouring countries come to South Africa to work and there is huge movement across borders."

There is growing concern about the transfer of genetic material through cross-pollination, its impact on other species and the effects on human beings, animal and plant health. Opponents of GMOs fear that transgenic crops could cause loss of biodiversity by displacing wild species and could also "contaminate" organic crops.

Those who support GMOs say that Africa, which experiences frequent food shortages, would benefit from the higher yields they say are associated with the technology, better tasting products, GM drugs and vaccines.

"GMO foods are not dangerous to human health," Professor Yogeshkumar Naik, a member of the Biosafety Board (Zimbabwe) and researcher at the National University of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying. He said the reason why Zimbabweans regard GMO foods as dangerous is that there was poor understanding of the technology.

The GMO Spread study highlights the importance of undertaking training courses, research that reassures consumers about the food they eat, building a database on GMO information and strengthening biosafety boards that will enforce regulations in line with the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol and the draft African Union Biosafety Model Laws.

Zimbabwe Herald

The impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture in Southern Africa

A recent study has shown the possible impact on agriculture-dependent households in which either or both the adults have HIV/Aids. Some research organisations in the area of food security, for instance, anticipate that labour loss in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) because of the epidemic will be between 12,7% and 26% in the next two decades.

Whichever way one looks at it, this is a frightening scenario.

In an October 2006 report, the World Food Programme said that the high prevalence of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa had a direct negative impact on food security. Health experts, it said, estimated that between seven and eight million farmers in the region have been lost to HIV/Aids over the past few years.

A study commissioned last year by the Southern Africa Trust — a regional non-profit agency which supports and encourages inclusive policy dialogue aimed at poverty reduction — found that 24,7-million people in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV/Aids, and that 59% of that figure was accounted for by women and children.

Malawi-based Victor Mhoni, of the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet), said of the relationship between the epidemic and the decline in farming activity in the region : “This pandemic wreaks havoc with farm labour patterns since there is now a lot of time spent by labourers on tending to the sick, thus neglecting farming activities. Also, when people in urban areas get sick, they usually go home to rural areas to be close to their families. This often creates a situation where families no longer properly stick to their farming calendars.”

Cesar Palha de Sousa of the organisation Cruzeiro do Sul in Mozambique said : “We have evidence here in Mozambique — based on surveys on the effects of HIV/Aids and the functioning of rural markets — that the composition of households has largely changed as a result of the deaths of people still in their prime.”

But, said Palha de Sousa, this composition changes more in cases where the death is that of a man than it does in cases where the woman dies, because when a woman dies and leaves a man behind, society will be quicker to provide the widower with a new spouse. The problem with this is that if the man has HIV/Aids, he will then infect the new spouse, thus leading to a vicious cycle of infection and death. This in turn will lead to a further rapid decline of the labour force and with that comes less agricultural productivity.

The FANRPAN study illustrates the possible impacts and responses of agriculture-dependent households in which either or both of the adults have HIV/Aids. If one of them becomes sick, he or she will work less, meaning that labour has to be imported. The imported labour could perhaps be a relative. But sometimes there may not be replacement labour. At the same time, health expenses will rise. In the event that replacement labour is not found, household consumption is likely to drop and there will eventually come a point at which the ill adult stops working altogether.

Because the children will have to spend more time tending to the ill parent, they may drop out of school. Meanwhile, debts creep up. Finally, the adult will die and funeral expenses will be incurred. The household may fragment as members of the family migrate to seek work in the cities,leaving the land lying fallow. Access to the household land may also be affected by issues surrounding the property rights to the surviving widow or children. The downward spiral accelerates from then on, says FANRPAN.

The realisation that the countries most affected by HIV/Aids also experienced slow growth in agricultural productivity and an increase in food insecurity over the last two decades, has led to the establishment of national Aids commissions in every SADC country. Farmers’ associations have also started awareness programmes and are trying to link farmers to organisations dealing with HIV/Aids.

Mail and Guardian

SADC set to create regional grain reserve

The Southern African Development Community is edging towards the creation of the first-ever food reserve facility that will mobilize grain and cereals to alleviate hunger in the drought-prone region.

Dubbed “Framework for the establishment of the SADC reserve facility” the initiative will be launched on April 20 when agricultural ministers from the trading bloc convene at a venue yet to be announced. Two agricultural experts from Zimbabwe have been contracted to formulate an operating framework, which will be presented at the ministers' meeting.

An official close to the developments said the initial target is to raise between 300,000 and 500,000 tonnes of maize to be stored in different parts of the region. The ministers will also consider the possibility of establishing a fund that would be used to assist countries failing to procure maize to avert hunger among their people.

The official said, “According to the document plan, SADC member states will be able to borrow money from the revolving fund for purposes of buying maize, either from the facility or elsewhere. This arrangement comes against a background of a steep rise in the cost of buying maize from other parts of the world”.

Financial Gazette