By KETRA KALUNGA
THE Zambian government of has made strides in enhancing food security in the country as outlined in several national policy documents.
These include the fifth, sixth and eighth National Development Plans, national agricultural policies, agricultural strategic plans, agricultural investment plans and the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan.
These national policy documents shows the government’s commitment to ensuring a robust food system that will contribute to the social and economic development agenda and achieve its 2030 aspirations of becoming a prosperous, middle-income country.
The UPND led-government has continued to pursue efforts to enhance productivity and improve food security and nutrition by recognizing that the production of quality foods needs to be complemented by robust and diverse agricultural value chains.
Including the need to establish a good distribution network as well as investing in food, processing, preservation and marketing. This is according to a government position paper on Zambia’s Food System Transformation Framework.
This is because Zambia is struggling to achieve food security and nutrition due to persistent maize-centric policies, poor and unsustainable agricultural practices with low agricultural diversity for both crops and livestock.
And inadequate market access, limited access to affordable financial services for small scale farmers, high prevalence of crop disease, underdeveloped livestock and fisheries sector couple with a high prevalence of livestock disease and inadequate agricultural extension service.
The production of quality and health foods is therefore facing challenges which include limited value addition, high post-harvest losses, poor food processing and preservation practices and underdeveloped food distribution systems, states the government position paper.
To address the challenges and accomplish a food system transformation that ensures the population is adequately fed and no one goes hungry, the government in collaboration with various cooperating partners has identified five pathways.
The pathways have been devised to realise the vision 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 2 which seeks sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms by 2030 and to achieve food security.
This will be done through national and sub-national conversations aligned with the United Nations Food Systems Summits Action Track theme areas which are;
1. Ensuring access to safe and nutritious foods for all by investing in a diverse crop and livestock production, setting up agro-processing plants, agro-storage hubs and vale addition for perishable foods across all agro-ecological zones.
2. Shifting to health and sustainable consumption patterns by enhancing social, behavioural change and communication in line with the Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and creating consumer awareness of health foods and promoting food fortification or enrichment and bio fortification.
Also creating incentives to stimulate production, reducing food loss and waste, distribution and consumption of indigenous or traditional foods, enhancing institutional feeding which include school feeding and enhancing nutritional services and regulatory reforms in food safety and standards.
3. Boosting nature-positive food production by promoting climate smart agriculture, agro forestry, aquaculture and capture fisheries which is fishing in water bodies, effective early warning systems to promote climate resilient cropping and livestock and fisheries systems.
4. Advancing equitable livelihoods of people involved in the food system by promoting policies that support equitable land allocation to accommodate women and youth, increase financial literacy and alternative livelihoods for farmers and small companies.
And introduce affordable digital financing lending opportunities for farmers and small enterprises as well as re-examine the efficacy of current government policies and criteria for recipient of social cash transfers, including other forms of assistant and the monitoring system.
5. Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress by diversification of crop species and genetic resources, expansion of local food banks, up scaling weather-based index insurance, and enhancing Early Warning System capabilities of institutions.
And also increasing investments in pest control and management surveillance while empowering rural communities to transform from dependency on external to a more independent approach to the adaptation to shocks and impact on families food and nutrition security.
The pathways which are an approach to food system transformation would help improve the production and productivity of nutrient-rich crop and livestock variety, improve animal diseases control and invest in irrigation schemes particularly for smallholder farmers.
Expand and improve the provision of agricultural extension services and equipment, provide affordable tailored financial services to small-scale farmers as well as land regeneration and biodiversity protection which are among the key priority actions in transforming the food system.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Country Representative Mtendere Mphanso says the current global food system is not able to feed the growing population and provide decent livelihoods for all such that there is persistent socio-economic imbalances and territorial inequities.
Mr Mphanso explains that what is seen is a food system that significantly contributes to negative effect of climate change and environmental degradation.
He says in Zambia, while the government has put in place polices and strategies aimed at improving food security and nutrition, the country’s food system is not efficient and sustainable enough to provide food security and adequate nutrition for all.
Mr Mphanso explains that a significant proportion of the population still experiences seasonal hunger with 35 percent of the children under the age of five have stunted growth due to poor nutrition while overweight and non-communicable diseases are increasing in adults.
“Furthermore, there is limited diversified supply and consumption of nutritious foods while
agricultural production is hampered by climate change effects manifested through recurrence of droughts, floods and high temperatures,” he says.
He says the use of improved and sustainable agricultural production technologies remains limited among the small-scale farmers who are the majority of the food producers but experience low productivity, limited diversification in agricultural production and stagnantly low incomes.
Output markets particularly for nutritious value chains are limited with poor storage and food preservation technologies at household level, he says.
Mr Mphanso says it is for this reason that need arose to transform the food system, to make it resilient and sustainable has arisen, says Mr Mphanso.
The FAO Country Representative made the remarks during the Food Systems Stock Taking National Dialogue in Lusaka on July 10, 2023 organized by the National Food and Nutrition Commission.
Speaking at the same event, United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Beatrice Mutali says sustainable food system lies at the heart of the SDGs and the call for major transformations in agriculture and food systems in order to end hunger achieve food security and improve nutrition by 2030.
Ms Mutali says to realize the SDGs, the global food system needs to be reshaped, to be more productive, more inclusive, environmentally sustainable and resilient and able to deliver healthy and nutritious diets to all.
“These are complex and systemic challenges that require a combination of interconnected actions at local, national, regional and global levels,” she says.
President Hakainde Hichilema on sidelines of UN General Assembly on 23rd September 2021 in New York, United States of America committed to adopting an innovative approach to ending hunger by 2030.
Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa says following the commitment made by the Head of State, the country is localising the UN food system pathways by building consensus among stakeholders.
And the mapping of Sixteen United Nations SDGs to the local food system pathways as a way of ensuring alignment of all SDGs to SDG number 2 on Zero hunger, he says.
Mr Kangwa adds that lobbying and ensuring that the health, food and nutrition programme is clearly placed in the 8NDP for 2022 to 2026. He said this in his opening remarks at the Food Systems Stock Taking National Dialogue.
He says with this approach, attaining Zero Hunger has great potential to attain all the other SDGs in Zambia and the world at large. The Secretary to the Cabinet was speaking during the Food Systems Stock Taking National Dialogue.
The government in its position paper on Zambia’s Food System Transformation Framework has committed to effectively implement the key priority drivers for the five indentified pathways through the national and sub-national food system dialogue process.
And enhance investments in agricultural productivity, food and nutrition security, social protection and resilience-building towards shocks and stresses.
It envisions a nation with a resilient food system to climate change and disasters that sustainably increase productivity, ensures that all people have access to safe and nutritious foods.
And ultimately contribute to a paradigm shift to health and sustainable consumption while focussing on economic transformation, job creation, human and social development and environmental sustainability.
