Executive
Secretary, Southern African development Community, (SADC) Dr. Lawrence
Stergomena Tax, has at a recent SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in
Harare, Zimbabwe confirmed that late last year’s floods and rains of early this
year, has threatened food security in the Southern Africa region, NaijaAgroNet reports.
NaijaAgroNet
learnt that the food security situation in the region is expected to be less
than satisfactory during the 2015/16 marketing year as a result of poor rains
in most parts of the region, dry spells in some areas, and floods in other
areas.
Dr
Tax, NaijaAgroNet learnt, expressed dissatisfaction over the situation,
noting that SADC would continue to monitor the situation and support early
warning for food security and vulnerability assessments in the member states.
In
a report on food security assessment presented at the 34th SADC Summit held in
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August last year, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the region had recorded a cereal surplus of
more than 670 000 metric tonnes during the previous agricultural marketing
season year.
This,
according to the report, was mainly attributed to good rainfall, better access
to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, as well as credit facilities and
extension services.
NaijaAgroNet
also learnt that the floods of which affected parts of Southern Africa between
late last year and early this year, left 200 people dead and 500,000 displaced
in Malawi, while in Mozambique, about 27, 838 households suffered losses in
cash crops.
Meanwhile
SADC during the council meeting, deliberated on innovative ways of dealing with
problems associated with changes in weather patterns, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Chairperson of the SADC Council of
Ministers, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, said it was now time for the region to seek
ways to curb increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such
as droughts and floods which adversely affects key sectors of the regional
economy including agriculture.
Mumbengegwi,
who is also Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister, told NaijaAgroNet that SADC to help deal with poor rains, would invest more
in regional water infrastructure development such as irrigation, allowing the
region to farm all year around and not only depend on climatic conditions to
deal with poor rains.
As
agriculture is the backbone of most economies in southern Africa, and more than
62 percent of the SADC region’s 277 million people are dependent on agriculture
for their livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet
gathered that the Council of Ministers, would canvass for an increased budget
allocations to agriculture as well as targeted subsidy programmes that would
result in farmers accessing agricultural inputs and farm implements at cheaper
rates.
Daniel
Nsolibe/GEE
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