Three leading civil society organisations have called on the Zambian government to implement specific measures that will address the rising food prices.
The Centre for Trade Policy and Development, the Platform for Social Protection and the Civil Society Organisations Scaling up Nutrition Alliance are demanding that Government introduces targeted strategies that will help reduce prices of essential food items.
The three organisations fear that higher food prices will make essential foods out of reach of majority of poor Zambians.
Centre for Trade Policy and Development Executive Director Isabel Mukelabai, Platform for Social Protection National Coordinator Mutale Wakunuma and Civil Society Organisations Scaling up Nutrition Alliance Coordinator William Chilufya were speaking on a live Let the People Talk radio programme Monday evening.
Centre for Trade Policy and Development Executive Director Isabel Mukelabai said the rising cost of accessing food in Zambia is a matter of grave concern.
“This is a serious matter especially because in a country like Zambia where you have 43 percent of people classified as extremely poor and 60 percent on average classified as poor, it means most people will not be able to afford a bag of Mealie which is selling around K 70 or even the roller meal which is about K 60,” Ms Mukelabai said.
She added, “what this means is that the people living in poverty will not be able to afford to buy food even the principle of the Cash Transfer Scheme where targeted households receive K 60 monthly will now be defeated. These noble efforts of assisting the most people in our society are eroded by high cost of food.”
She added, “Increased demand of food by emerging economies is one of the reasons pushing up food prices.”
“At the country level, we have some domestic reasons determined by local policies. Policy revisions such as removal of subsidies have affected pricing of food. We can state here that the removal of subsidies in itself was not bad as subsidies turn to give an artificial depletion of the actual price of the commodity, sometimes you have to look at the real cost of production but the removal was ill timed and there was little consultations, especially that there a lot of vulnerable groups that needed protection from government.”
Platform for Social Protection National Coordinator Mutale Wakunuma advised Government to approach the issue of escalating food prices with the seriousness it deserves.
Ms Wakunuma said, “If you have to buy Mealie at a higher price than you bought it yesterday, then you have to give up something or sacrifice something for you to afford that bag of Mealie meal. It is what is called opportunity cost.”
“What is happening is a cocktail of factors that are pushing up food prices. We have political factors such as the removal of subsidies on fuel and maize and then we have natural and social causes of escalating food prices. On natural causes, we have to consider climatic changes and what that does to food production. All these have a bearing on how the economy performs. Less people in our country are producing less because of poor nutrition,” Ms Wakunuma said.
Civil Society Organisations Scaling up Nutrition Alliance Coordinator William Chilufya said it is unacceptable for a country like Zambia with all its endowment to have 48.5 percent of children under the age of five being malnourished.
“What is happening is that we as a nation is producing children whose bodies and brains are not fully developed. Higher food prices translate to poor nutrition and in children, poor nutrition affects cognitive development and those children will not grow to reach their full potential. A malnourished perform cannot produce anything significant,” Mr Chilufya said.
He added, “We also know that a malnourished person loses about 10 of personal productivity and that translates into 2.3 percent of GDP loss at a national level. We also know that the health burden could be reduced if people had access to good diet. We have a lot of sick people because people have bad nutrition”
Mr Mutale also observed that the rise in Non Communicable Diseases such as Diabetes is sometimes due to lack of access to proper nutrition in one’s first 1,000 days.
He also observed that Zambia is suffering from increased food prices because food availability is threatened because food preservation mechanisms are bad.
“As a nation, our food wastage rates through post-harvest losses are too high. We are losing too much food simply going to waste after harvest. We also need to diversify our food choices away from Maize or Nshima.”
Mr Chilufya also advised government to seriously invest in research on food crops.
“What we are seeing now is that the rains are not predicable anymore, as a nation we need to ask ourselves what can we now grow in these unpredictable weather patterns? Let’s invest in research which can inform the diversification of the food sector.”
Mr Chilufya also called on government to stop neglecting the fisheries and small livestock sectors as away of diversifying food production.
Michael’s government is in serious trouble. Zambia’s external debt is continually rising with no specifc strategy provided on how this will be curbed. Food prices are on the rise and so is the rate of unemployment. Someone needs to come up with a plan. Are these PF guys on vacation or working?
Why is the same maize meal displayed outside the shops? One thing in mind ” black market is back” in the times of KK.
Next shabins……..
My Appeal to all Zambians.
Let us all concerned Zambians raise as one and put aside petty tribal bias and rally behind HH. At present, this is the only HONEST way for Zambia. Let us look beyond the greed, bitterness and lies being peddled by the PAST Newspaper and unite to save our country.
Let us also be wary of the distraction and garbage spawned by sponsored cadres like Luapula Premier, Chinyama, Mushota, Haleisa Halenya, Jo-Jo, and their kind. Those guys don’t have Zambia’s interest at heart. They are just being used.
When a government loses respect for its citizens it also loses respect for the citizen’s staple food… so much that the staple food (mealie meal in this instance) is sold from all sorts of dodgy places; along dusty streets, near overflowing sewer sites, next to fishalas, toiltes and even taverns, WHAT A MESS THIS PF IS!!!!!
imagine even the one selling the mealie meal in the picture cant afford one for home. he is dozing due to hunger. PF for you. hard times are coming. brace yourself for that
Free market economy at play,this is very interesting mis yakunuma advises on opportunity cost,towns shiuld be left for the working class’ others should get back to the land..don’t let govt control prices of food but the market value to prevail, generally all counties in the subregion are experiencing increased food prices due to demand and supply laws
The govt is mandated to maximize social welfare of citizens, that’s its job and purpose of existence! every govt will be judged by its efficiency in this regards. with the current state of affairs, where poverty levels are escalating and the govt’s misdirected resource distribution. its not hard to predict where we are heading to.
THESE ARE THE EFFECTS OF REMOVING SUBSIDES ON MAIZE AND FUEL BUT TO SATA THE POOR ARE BENEFITING BY EXPOSING THEM TO HIGH COST OF LIVING
For how long shall we continue talking ? Why do we all want to eat maize nshima , why have we abandoned the other food crops ? Why do we laugh when someone eats Mango or sweet potatoes for lunch? Why cant our local scientists find ways of helping our people preserve sweet potatoes , mangoes a lot of which go to waste year after year ? It is a shame that despite all the endowment ( land , water, good weather) , we still suffer lack of food. It makes me cry.
@Rotten Teeth
Are you aware that growing “iChumbu “is a laborious job that requires a lot land to cultivate than maize. Maize is the easiest and cheapest crop for less mechanised countries like Zambia. In all the provinces may be apart from Northern and Luapula maize and sorgham has been the staple food for centuries.
Thanks to the marketing gimmicks and branding propaganda, we have all been mislead into believing that breakfast mealie meal is good for us .The truth is that the more refined any carbohydrate is ( including maize) the less nutritiuos and more harmful it is to our bodies. Gvt could adopt a policy which would direct our diet towards the more wholesome and cheaper to produce roller meal . Such a deliberate policy could penalie millers (not consumers ) for using maize to produce breakfast. The incentive / benefit needs to be significant enough as to induce the desired behaviour in millers and consumers. Compulsory Labelling warning consumers that breakfast meal is not nutritious should be placed on breakfast bags. This and other measures ould help ween our population from wasteful breakfast
Zambia has some very qualified economists and some of the brightest minds on teh continent, who could have helped chart the way forward and out of this economic turbulence. The trouble is that under PF, the anointing is only on the members of the family tree! The tribalists are wrecking the country and destroying its economy, not because they want to, but simply because they don’t know any better. They are using trial and error methods and old fashioned experiments.
The Zambian people must demand that this government resigns because they simply don’t know what they are doing and are wasting everybody’s time. Zambians have suffered too much and for far too long. Now even resource strapped Malawi beats Zambia in human development and economic growth!
The forum neglected one most important factor that our g
overnment is unknowingly is strangling with. The effect of rebasing the kwacha, and the introduction of K100 note. This was like introduction of a virus that will silently eat on the national wealth. Subsidies, I have no problems with as they are controllable factors, but the economics surrounding the wealth of a nation are not of the easiest of factors to manage. You can be rest assured that the stronger economies will undermine and continue to undermine our currency thereby leading to a upward spiral effect in this economy. The dollar now is selling at $5.6, the PSBR is now at its worst, the compromised food security, poor implementation of fiscal policies, and coupled with poor unclear economic policy; then now add in the…