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By Charles Dhewa Lockdowns as a major method for containing COVID-19 has undoubtedly destroyed social fabrics that sustain most low-income economies. While governments have tried to soften the pandemic’s blow by providing cushioning allowances and other social safety nets to vulnerable members of society including vendors, Mukando or Stokvel and other forms of voluntary and…
By Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association Introduction The tourism sector is one of the most affected industries by the COVID-19 pandemic which is an unprecedented global health and socioeconomic crisis. Globally, this sector is accredited for its immense contribution to GDP, job creation, infrastructure development and wildlife conservation efforts. In the first quarter of 2020, the…
By Olusegun Obasanjo and Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe Africa has so far escaped the worst health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the continent looks like it could be the worst hit from the economic fallout of the crisis: 80 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty if action is not taken. And disruptions in…
By Charles Dhewa Among other revelations, COVID-19 has shown the extent to which formal and informal African economies do not work in isolation but are more like Siamese twins. African economies are structured in such a way that there are no distinct supply chains that can be locked down without affecting entire ecosystems. For instance,…
USAID/Zimbabwe announces a new Feed the Future activity, Fostering Agribusiness for Resilient Markets (FARM). The US$19.8 million, five-year contract with Chemonics International will commence in the next few months and will focus its efforts in Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces. FARM builds on the work of Feed the Future Zimbabwe-Crop Development, Feed the Future-Livestock Development, and USAID’s…
By Charles Dhewa In addition to disrupting food supply chains, COVID-19 has presented a pricing headache for smallholder farmers in African countries. If government directs supermarkets to revert back to pre-COVID19 prices they can easily do so because they have a tradition of keeping records on stocks and prices. On the other hand, mass markets…
Humanitarian agencies in Senegal are this week distributing aid as part of an early response to food shortage, which has been caused by the late onset of rainfall last year. This early action will help alleviate the suffering of those affected and reduce the need for them to resort to negative coping actions such as…
Zimbabwe remains in the grip of severe food insecurity, with millions of people already requiring humanitarian assistance due to prolonged drought, climate-related shocks, economic deterioration and the situation set to worsen as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, according to the new Global Food Crisis Report Forecast (GFCRF). The joint report, released by the European Union, FAO, OCHA,…
By Charles Dhewa The majority of developing countries are still to tear themselves away from the colonial set up where major food markets were located in cities or towns in order to provide food for low income people working in formal industries. Under that arrangement food had to travel from rural areas most of which…
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) officially launched a social media campaign on Agroecology for Climate Action on April 21, 2020. The campaign will also observe the occasion of Earth Day 2020, which will be internationally celebrated today, April 22. The campaign will be live between April 21-23 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram….
By Atsuko Toda and Martin Fregene The global spread of COVID-19 and the rising number of coronavirus cases in Africa are fueling anxiety about negative economic growth, failing healthcare and collapsing food systems We are facing great uncertainty on the African continent. The global spread of COVID-19 and the rising number of coronavirus cases in…
Climate change and development expert Richard Munang speaks about agriculture, Africa and coronavirus pandemic. Africa’s youthful population is considered its biggest asset. Is the continent fully utilising this asset? Studies on wealth indicate that a skilled person is 15 times more productive than natural resources. Africa needs to change its mindset and prioritise efforts that selflessly…
By Charles Dhewa After years of persuading development agencies not to concentrate on the production side but spread their resources along supply chains all the way to the market, eMKambo has finally been vindicated. COVID-19 has provided the Ahaa! moment for policy makers and development agencies on the importance of building infrastructure at African mass markets. If a…
By Dumisani Nkomo (Habakkuk Trust Trust CEO) Elephants are on the rampage in Jutshume village, Bulilima Ward 10, destroying the crop remnant that had survived the drought. The herd suspected to be numbering five has since invaded six fields, consuming produce and destroying fences in the process. Villagers are living in fear as memories of a tragic…
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is offering an animal food safety course. The Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) for Animal Food training, will be held July 28-30 at the Inn at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee, US. Registration for the course is now open and closes June 19. The course is one way to…
By Anyway Yotamu The government is targeting to increase the production of winter wheat hectarage from 24 186ha achieved in 2018 to 80 000 ha in 2020 winter season, with contract farming financed by a commercial bank and other private players and a target yield of 5 metric tonnes per hectare. Speaking at a media…
Pathogenic fungi pose a huge and growing threat to global food security. Currently, we protect our crops against fungal disease by spraying them with anti-fungal chemistries, also known as fungicides. However, the growing threat of microbial resistance against these chemistries requires continuous development of new fungicides. A consortium of researchers from the University of Exeter,…
By Charles Dhewa African countries are called less industrialized economies for genuine reasons. If the majority of people in a country depend on more than 80 agricultural commodities and less than 10 can be turned into processed products, such a country is obviously less industrialized. For instance, in Zimbabwe, only maize meal, flour, sugar, wheat…
By Veritas Earlier this month the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement gazetted a set of regulations ‒ the Land Commission (Gazetted Land)(Disposal in Lieu of Compensation) Regulations, 2020 (SI 62 of 2020) [link] ‒ which provided for the return of farms to two classes of farmers who had been dispossessed during the land reform…
As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in Africa, many governments have begun to tighten borders, restrict gatherings and close schools. The crisis has already fundamentally changed people’s lives not just with regards to public health but in terms of politics, the economy, public services, and much more. What about food systems? One thing that cannot…
Chinese purchases of US grains have been quite scant since the coronavirus epidemic hit the country, despite the phase one trade agreement being signed by both nations back in January. China pledged to buy an additional US$12.5 billion worth of agricultural goods in 2020 compared to the 2017 level of US$24 billion. Many analysts have…
Governments and financial institutions are under growing pressure to make economic bailouts designed to counter the coronavirus pandemic dependent on climate action in the longer term. Over the last week, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stopgap measures have been announced to fight the coronavirus and limit economic shortfalls. In the US, industries are…
By Charles Dhewa Post-harvest handling and storage of agriculture commodities remain the biggest challenge for the majority of African smallholders. Unfortunately, most solutions being pushed are designed to get surplus commodities moving quickly from farming areas to the market and consumers. Solutions that enable farmers to hold onto their commodities and sell profitably rather…
Agriculture 4.0, the next agricultural revolution will need to look at the demand side and the value chain/supply side of the food-scarcity equation, using technology not simply for the sake of innovation, but to improve and address the real needs of consumers and re-engineer the value chain. The world is expected to grow by 33%…
By Anyway Yotamu. One of the country’s energy companies, Sakunda Holdings has told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the total amount spent on Command Agriculture was US$1 Billion in the four years the programme was implemented and not US$3 Billion as widely shared by the committee. Giving oral evidence before PAC on its…
By Charles Dhewa African agriculture requires banks with a vision to invest in infrastructure which can be used by farmers to anchor production in ways that simplify loan repayment. For instance, Vision 2030 should have financial products that speak to a 10-year horizon. Financing inputs is just like providing consumer loans that do not have…
By Joyce Mukucha The impacts of climate disasters have continued to make headlines around the world and this has seen cases of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, domestic violence and sexual exploitation increasing amongst rural based girls and women. Research and statistics indicate that floods, wildfires, and droughts are decimating communities across the globe. Already,…
Tens of thousands of people across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are still suffering 12 months after Cyclone Idai battered Southern Africa, warned Oxfam yesterday. Cyclone Idai, one of the worst cyclones to hit Africa, made landfall on 14th March 2019. A new Oxfam briefing, ‘After the Storm,’ highlights that over 100,000 people in Mozambique and…
By Anyway Yotamu Government has rolled out a massive irrigation programme targeting 100 thousand hectares which will be turned into green belts of maize and other strategic crops under the smart agriculture concept. The Command Agriculture programme has moved a gear up, with several farmers who have reliable sources of water being targeted under the…
By Charles Dhewa All over the world, information sources are no longer just important for journalists. African policy makers who really want to transform their agro-based economies cannot afford to remain silent about their sources of information. There is emerging consensus to the effect that information from academic institutions, private companies and development agencies is…
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of $3 million CAD from the Canadian Government to life-saving humanitarian operations in Zimbabwe. The funding supports WFP’s rapid scale-up of emergency food assistance to reach almost 55,000 people in Matobo district. Canada’s contribution comes at a crucial time when WFP is working to…
The Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Mr Vangelis Haritatos has said that the agricultural sector is the most significant prime-mover of Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030. He made the remarks at the two-day consultative workshop on the Enabling Business of Agriculture (EBA), pillar 1 of AGRINVEST Initiative that kicked off in Harare today….
By Charles Dhewa There has been a general tendency by developing countries to cherry-pick and deploy some components of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the agriculture sector. Combining infrastructure and ICTs could play a more catalytic role than just using ICTs for promoting extension services. If African countries are going to produce sufficient agricultural…
Canada is investing in the Canadian Agri-Food Sustainability Initiative (CASI) to boost sustainability and build public trust in its agriculture sector. Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced a federal investment of C$560,000 for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) to develop the initiative. It will provide Canadian farmers and processors an online national…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu Considering that 70 percent of the population in Africa is constituted by small-holder farmers, Oxfam in conjunction with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is working tirelessly to create an enabling environment to transform agriculture markets for the small holder farming households. The main thrust…
By Charles Dhewa Days of doing research for its own sake are numbered in developing countries. The same applies to an enduring tendency by researchers to be satisfied with publishing research findings into journals. Many African researchers are waking up to the fact that academic excellence will not solve teething challenges like mass poverty and…
he African Development Bank (https://www.AfDB.org) urged development finance institutions, NGOs, farmer cooperatives, and the private sector to develop more effective financing solutions for Africa’s fertilizer value chains. The Bank’s call to action came during the Argus Africa Fertilizer Conference held on 19 February. The conference’s theme was Supporting the fertilizer value chain to improve agricultural productivity…
By Joyce Mukucha and Anyway Yotamu In an effort to support the agricultural sector and eradicate hunger and poverty in Zimbabwe, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has handed over a substantial donation to the Horticulture Development Council (HDC), a parastatal which operates under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture,Water,Rural Resettlement. The…
By Charles Dhewa In spite of presence in rural areas by African governments and development agencies there are still no meaningful pathways for uplifting communities out of poverty. A recent trend has seen development agencies working through some kind of consortia in one rural district or county but still after three or four years…
By Anyway Yotamu The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) submitted a fourth letter to Parliament in a bid to evade being grilled by legislators under the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement over US$27 million they received from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. GMAZ was set to appear for hearing…
Global Renaissance Investments have earmarked an international Infrastructure Summit and Expo involving South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that will take place in the resort town of Victoria Falls from 4 to 7 March 2020 at the famous Kingdom Hotel. Addressing journalists at the five-star Meikles Hotel in Harare today, Mr. Ngoni Dzirutwe, the Chief Executive…
Leaders acknowledged the scope of the challenge but sounded a note of optimism African countries have made progress toward eradicating malnutrition and stunting but need to do more to hit United Nations malnutrition targets by 2025. This was the main message of a meeting that took place during the 33rd African Union Summit. Speakers at…
The Environmental Management Agency, Birdlife Zimbabwe, NetOne, and Haka Game Park, among other stakeholders have joined hands in commemorating the belated World Wetlands Day under the theme, “Wetlands and Biodiversity.” This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, therefore the…
Mr. William Kojo Agyemang-Bonsu, the Manager of the Mitigation and Transparency Support (Mitigation, Data and Analysis) unit of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat has commended Zimbabwe stakeholder collaboration towards coming up with quality greenhouse gases inventory reports. “As per our assessment, the work that has been carried out is fair in the sense…
Mr. Alois Tsiga, the Project Coordinator for the Fourth National Communications and First Biennial Update under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for Zimbabwe has said there are low hanging fruits for the country in complying with such requirements. Speaking to Spiked Online Media in Harare today, Mr. Tsiga revealed that national…
