Youth Voices in Development Assignment #2
Goal Two:Zero Hunger:End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.(See information on the targets related to goal two)
2. Choose one or more of the targets of goal two. What are your observations and recommendations for addressing this target in your host country, based on your experience?
“Your feet will take you away from home, but your stomach will always bring you back”
(A proverb submitted to BBC Africa from a reader in Lusaka, Zambia)
I’m on a large bus travelling west across Zambia for work following a Family Day celebration, watching the world flash by my window. Huge plots extended as far as the eye could see with imposing gates around and large posters spotted the roads promoting “drought resistant”, or “extra hardy” or “pest free” maize varieties- genetically modified seeds for farmers. Sitting outside the front gates of these large farms are women and children heating cobs of corn over small charcoal fires, attempting to sell their hot snacks and small stacks of bright red tomatoes to passer-by. The commonly cited statistic says that women in Africa are 80% of the farming labour, yet their control/access/ownership of the land itself is usually next to nothing, instead deferring to the power of men. I found myself wondering if the women I see daily hawking their produce grew the food themselves, or imported it, and whether they feed their families on the same goods they are selling, or whether it is out of their price range for personal consumption.
North American society has a pretty messed up relationship with food. Some of these overarching issues are the food production system taking over land, abusing certain minority groups, maltreatment of animals pre-slaughter, leaching nutrients from large tracts of land, destruction of forest, and injecting toxins into the environment in a multitude of ways such as carbon emissions. We produce more than we need, and suffer from obesity. Living in Africa, food security and sovereignty takes different forms- farms tend to be on a smaller scale, technology for agriculture is not as advanced (corn is removed from the cob by hand, seeds are planted and watered by hand, etc.), and the health issues of malnutrition and stunting stem from a lack of food and lack of nutritional options, not an excess. The Zambian 2015 Living Conditions Survey states:
Distribution of meals per day: in 2015 3.1% of Zambians said that they eat only 1 meal per day, 41% say they eat two meals per day, 52% said three meals, and 3.5% say that they eat more than three times a day. There are slightly more people in the data grouping which ingests three meals per day, in comparison to the data from five years ago.
Household expenditures: Keeping in mind that most Zambian families have on average 4 children, 1588KW ($199 CAD) (is the total spending monthly per family in Zambia, and 645KW ($81 CAD) is the average spending on food. If you are to break this down based on settlement styles, 763KW ($95CAD) is the average in rural areas for total monthly spending, 430 KW ($54CAD) being spent on food necessities, leaving 333KW ($42 CAD) of that for any other non-food expense (rent, charcoal, home supplies, school supplies, etc.). Breaking this into percentages, rurally 56% of peoples’ monthly expenditures are spent on food, and 35% of urban spending is on food.
Under five breastfeeding marginally improved in last five years: rates are around 40% in both urban and rural. At about 15 months of age there is a huge drop-off of breastfeeding, especially in urban areas, while rural tends to drop off significantly around 19 months. Ages 0-6 months: Exclusive breastfeeding: 62%, the breastfeeding with supplements or complementary foods it is around 28%, though 8% were not being breastfed, which is quite high in 2015. Exclusive breastfeeding is rising, with supplementation and not breastfeeding at all is decreasing.
Stunting rates are very high at 50%, wasting rates around 7%, and underweight around 13%, all of which are slightly higher in rural but not largely, except for stunting which is 5% higher in rural areas. Sex divide: more males are stunted, underweight, and wasted (46% versus 53% for F:M stunting rates). To summarize, stunting is 50% at national average, wasting is at 7% nationally, and underweight 13%. Northwestern is one of the direst districts for poor nutrition.
Breakdown of poverty levels: Total poor 54.4%, extreme poor 41%, moderately poor 14%, non-poor is 46%. According to sex: overall, women are at higher levels of poverty at all levels and they face more extreme rates.
2.5
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
An interesting issue that Zambians want to talk about is how dangerous genetically modified materials are. GMO and their subsequent corporations are largely new to much of the African continent- in the newspaper there are always article about different shops being caught in deliberation about whether to approve GM products into their stores. It’s fascinating to think about that many of the people we know subsist on a diet of simple carbohydrates (e.g. white bread and processed maize), almost no fresh fruits and vegetables, low protein (too expensive) and incredibly high salt and sugar intake (soda, sweets, and heavily salted fast food). Yet, they want to warn you not to eat the chickens being sold at the market because they have been genetically modified. Agreements are underway with a large amount of the African countries and the major multinationals of food production and agricultural systems (Cargill, Monsanto, Unilever, DuPont, Coca Cola, Yara Fertilizer, etc.), which would bind these countries into the systems we are enslaved by in most of North America in terms of patented seed laws and exclusive fertilizer use rather than independent decision making or seed sharing or multiplication. These age-old practises for farming ensure biodiversity and avoid soil nutrient depletion. Fertilizers and other agrochemicals have been linked by the United Nations to serious health problems and food poisoning costing upwards of $90 million before 2020, just within sub- Saharan Africa. Upon signing, multinationals can claim and gain access to fertile land under the guise of improved crop yield to fight poverty; this land is crucial to sub-Saharan Africa as means of survival as global warming creates intense food insecurity in drought and flood seasons. But realistically, large pieces of land will be acquired through national government agreements, forcing small scale farmers off their land without fair compensation, ending their self-sufficiency and creating forced migration to urban centres. The consequence on the personal mental health of farmers and the social depletion has been widely seen in India where suicide rates of farmers who have entered debt due to agrochemical agreements are staggering. Furthermore, because the multinationals have partnered with national government, there is a high chance (based on previous case studies) that the focus will be on export for financial gain rather than social responsibility to feed local citizens. For farmers, the right to see is their basic access to life.
Africa and Zambia has an opportunity to maintain their traditional practises and integrate it into improved technology to create improved food production outcomes. But there is need for a long-term focus. Right now, I see utter destruction taking place in much of the country. Entire tracts of land burning to be able to turn into instant farm land, huge forests destroyed for firewood, charcoal creating suffocating smog, garbage burning on every street corner that suffocates passer-by. The Tanzanian Minister for Environment recently stated that 61% of the east African country was under threat of becoming a desert caused by ongoing massive environmental degradation, losing an average of one million acres of forests annually; within the last decade the area lost is equivalent to the entire size of Rwanda. The problem is largely caused by the high demand of forest products (firewood and charcoal) as the main source of energy, over 90%. On monthly basis the city of Dar es Salaam alone is consuming between 200,000 and 300,000 bags of charcoal with an average weight of 50kg each. The wave of massive environmental degradation is also affecting water sources and catchment areas. Climate change is being felt throughout the world with fluctuations in rain patterns and increased heat, but these outcomes are exacerbated in sub- Saharan Africa. Countries are just waking up to the most serious global food crisis of the last 25 years, the scale of which has shocked the United Nations but unfortunately has not captured the worldwide attention or funding it needs to avoid utter catastrophe. Caused by the strongest El Nino weather since 1982, dramatic weather ranging from drought to flood and a second consecutive year without rain now threatens catastrophe for some of the poorest people in the world. Zambia was under pressure to support emergency food supplies to areas that have declared emergency, many of which are border countries, such as Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Madagascar, Angola, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but although Zambia says they are food secure enough to export there is concern about internal malnutrition.
2.3
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
In many of the dry agricultural areas of the world, including much of Africa, women traditionally devote much of their time and effort to the land. According to available statistics, 78% of women in Zambia engage in agriculture, contributing a significant percentage to the country's agricultural output. This output supports 70% of the country's 13 million plus population. They grow, process, manage and market food and other natural resources. They may have gardens, work in the fields, raise small animals, collect feed for animals, process tree products for sale and collect fuel and water. Many invest great vigour and energy into ensuring the day-to-day survival of their families and communities. Despite all those efforts, women living in dry lands also tend to rank among the poorest of the poor, with little power to bring about real change unless they are empowered and gain productive resources. They are often excluded from participation in land conservation and development projects, from agricultural extension work and from policies that directly affect their livelihoods. This situation is exacerbated during situations of low resources, adding stress to the family, causing food and financial insecurity, and over time, if the situation continues, displacement. Women remain marginalized in terms of access to credit and most importantly land. While the former is blamed on financial exclusion, the latter is a product of patriarchal customary land ownership where women are largely excluded from owning land except through their husbands. Customary land is held and used in accordance with customs and traditions of local communities, without any documentation, further complicating matters for women to obtain credit and other required supports for smallholder agricultural development.
A mono-crop of maize in Zambia does not help our economy grow, we need to diversify the crops and include more women in the control, ownership, and access to land so that resources are spread equally within community. The Civil Society Organization Scaling Up Nutrition says the current shortages of maize are a wake-up call to the government to seriously implement the existing crop diversification programme; if (or more realistically when) there is a shortage of maize, people can start eating the nutritious locally available foods such as sorghum, millet. We have seen rolling shortages of mealie-meal posing a danger of escalated cases of malnutrition in the country and creating interpersonal conflict for women as they attempt to purchase food for their families- fighting over remaining resources. Although maize is such an integral part of culture, production, and food in Zambia, it lacks real nutrition and is very difficult for the body to digest, so even in times of food security it would be helpful to the health of Zambians to diversify their food choices. For example, the price of cashews has inspired government to revive cashew nut growing in the western part of the country, identified as part of Zambia's diversification programme to broaden the revenue base and to cushion the impact of falling copper prices which remains unfavourable on the global market. The Zambian government should put together a multi-sectorial plan for food and nutrition in order to ensure that Zambians do not starve.
But most importantly, it’s about empowering women to have greater control over household resources, either through their on income or through cash transfers, so that they can enhance the countries' growth prospects by changing spending in ways that benefit their family in the long run- it has been proven many times over that children’s lives improve when women are in control of the productive resources of the home as a result of more spending on food and education.
Vanessa Barr
Lusaka, Zambia
Women for Change Internship- Information and Advocacy Officer
Cohort Three