Apostle Rangarirayi Hungwe donates food hampers to the elderly in Hopley

International Power Ministries founder Rangarirayi Hungwe donated food hampers to senior citizens residing in Hopley, Harare South recently. It was an emotional but celebratory event when the grannies in the highly impoverished settlement received a food hamper each to alleviate them from starvation that is common in the area just as in most impoverished societies….

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International Youth Day: Young people urged to embrace innovation in food sustainability

By Veritas Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation For Human Planetary Health In 1999, the World Conference of Ministers Responsible For Youth recommended that the 12th of August be set aside as International Youth Day.  The UN took the recommendation into consideration and, by resolution 54/120, it was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.  The intended purpose…

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SADC Synthesis Report Reveals Widespread Regional Food and Nutrition Insecurity

The recently released 2021 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Synthesis Report on the State of Food and Nutrition Security has revealed widespread regional food insecurity. Below, Spiked Online Media shares the Executive Summary of the report: Southern Africa suffers from widespread food and nutrition insecurity. This year, in the ten SADC Member States that submitted…

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A lion’s share of climate funds must focus on restoring indigenous food systems

By Charles Dhewa For most developing countries, the COVID19 pandemic has shown the undisputed value of indigenous food. Several communities that had become used to depending on imported food and medicines suddenly discovered they can use lockdowns and restrictions to taste and use indigenous food as well as medicines that are easily an expression of…

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Germany provides support to vulnerable communities in Zimbabwe

The Government of Germany, through the German Federal Foreign Office, has contributed EUR 3 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Zimbabwe to support highly vulnerable communities struggling to meet their basic food needs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a EUR 18 million contribution by Germany to Southern Africa…

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Bill Gates: Stop Telling Africans What Kind of Agriculture Africans Need

By Million Belay, Bridget Mugambe on July 6, 2021   Africans have long been told that our agriculture is backward and should be abandoned for a 21st-century version of the Green Revolution that enabled India to feed itself. Western science and technology, in the form of seeds modified by science and technology, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, petroleum-fueled machinery, and…

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Victoria Falls’s Zambezi Boutique Guest House: Going the extra mile to offer the best

Fresh. Exquisite. Dependable. Majestic. Refreshing. Compact. Versatile. Different. This is a fair trial but inadequate attempt to describe Victoria Falls’ most recent, attractive, and popular citadel of tourism and hospitality services – the Zambezi Guest House. It is completely private – secluded and nestled in a peaceful suburb of Victoria Falls, approximately a 1 km…

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Nyaradzo Group’s Sahwira Agriculture (Pvt) Limited to maximise food production

A giant insurer, Nyaradzo Group’s Sahwira Agriculture (Pvt) Limited is poised to maximise food production, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Philip Mataranyika has said. “Sahwira Agriculture has been established as a special purpose company backed by Nyaradzo Life Assurance Company as its anchor investor, with management oversight from Nyaradzo Asset Management. “The company’s core activity is…

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World’s soils ‘under great pressure’, says UN pollution report

The world’s soils, which provide 95% of humanity’s food, are “under great pressure”, according to a UN report on soil pollution. Soils are also the largest active store of carbon, after the oceans, and therefore crucial in fighting the climate crisis. But the report said industrial pollution, mining, farming, and poor waste management are poisoning soils,…

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ZESN Long-Term Observer Report on Monitoring Responses to COVID-19

By Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) INTRODUCTION During the month of May, a new variant of COVID-19, the Indian Variant B.1.617, was detected in Kwekwe. Subsequent to this, the government imposed a two-week lockdown covering the entire district: the City of Kwekwe, Redcliff town, and the surrounding farming areas in Kwekwe Rural District Council. Measures…

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Food Relief Hampers: Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) reaches out to communities

Cognisant of the fact that following COVID-19-induced hardships, most families in Zimbabwe are facing hunger and starvation, the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is extending its giving hand by distributing food hampers to deserving families across the country.   Speaking during the food distribution exercise in Chitungwiza on Monday 3 May 2021, Mr Can…

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Healthy Forests Are Key to ‘Building Back Better’: FAO

Healthy forests are key to “building back better”, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General QU Dongyu said last week in his video address to the high-level round table at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF, 26-30 April 2021). In his remarks, the Director-General extolled the many virtues of forests, including ensuring people’s food security…

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African development banks, institutions pledge US$17 billion to increase food security

IFAD said it aimed to provide an additional US$1.5 billion to Africa to support national efforts to transform food and agricultural systems over the next three years A coalition of multilateral development banks and development partners has pledged over US$17 billion in financing on Friday during a high-level forum, in a bold bid to address…

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The world needs a food movement based on agro-ecology and equity

by Pat Mooney The idea of a Food Systems Summit seemed timely when it was announced in 2019 by the World Economic Forum and the UN Secretary-General’s Office. But while the need was widely appreciated, the unorthodox proposal by Davos to expand “stakeholder capitalism” to encompass the United Nations alarmed some involved in the food movement….

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Retailers cry foul over the order to pay VAT on rice backdated to 2017

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) is crying foul over a recent letter in which Finance and Economic Development Minister Prof Mthuli Ncube insisted that retailers should pay Value Added Tax (VAT) on rice for periods backdated to 2017 on packages of 25kg or less. In the letter, Prof Ncube said Treasury could not accede…

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Strengthening Food Systems Centre of Africa’s COVID-19 Recovery

Strengthening food systems must be an integral part of efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to build resilience in Africa, said African Development Bank Director General for Southern Africa, Leila Mokaddem. Hunger is a greater threat to many Africans than the COVID-19 crisis, Mokaddem said in a session on sustainable food systems at the Southern…

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Scope for pushing knowledge boundaries by domesticating indigenous foods

By Charles Dhewa Good rainfall seasons across Africa are not only characterized by an abundance of domesticated crops and livestock but an increase in the availability of non-domesticated natural food resources. Such resources range from edible insects to indigenous fruits, tubers, vegetables, mushrooms, and small indigenous animals. While some are prevalent in high rainfall regions,…

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2020/2021 seasonal rainfall impressive: Rural farmers

By Joyce Mukucha Following successive droughts over the past few years that negatively affected agricultural growth in Zimbabwe, farmers in rural areas are overwhelmed with joy because the rains have remained above normal throughout the country in the 2020 -2021 cropping season. Spiked Online Media conducted interviews with various farmers in different provinces who expressed…

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COVID-19: Southern Africa faces food insecurity, calls for solidarity gain momentum

The SADC Regional Vulnerability Committee Chair, António Pacheco Dias Lima on 22 February 2021 called on member states, to find ways to share success stories, opportunities, and progress captured in the national Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis to inform food security interventions as the region battles COVID-19 and record high levels of food insecurity Dias Lima…

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Government Targeting 2 million Metric Tonnes of Maize

Following the millions of hectares that were repossessed by the black majority during the land reform programme, the Government has assured the nation that there will be sufficient maize through the food self sufficiency programmes. The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr. Anxious Masuka said this year, the nation will have…

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FAO Commemorates World Pulses Day

By Joyce Mukucha The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Liaison Office with the United Nations (UN) in New York in collaboration with Emerging Ag Inc, governments, non-governmental organizations, and all other relevant stakeholders yesterday held a virtual event to celebrate World Pulses Day. The event which was aimed at raising awareness and recognising the contribution…

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Finding strengths in local food markets amid the pandemic

By Charles Dhewa Since March 2020 when COVID19 first showed up in Africa, mass food markets have continued to play their critical functions although policy support has continued to be directed to processing companies and supermarkets. In 2021, COVID19 did not just confirm the importance of a strong immune system but has also revealed the strengths…

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UK pledges £4 million (US$5.4 million) to help feed 110,000 food insecure people in urban areas

… Part of a global package worth £47 million to provide food, nutrition, water and shelter to help over 1.3 million vulnerable people in 9 countries and regions, including Zimbabwe. New UN data reveals humanitarian crises are worsening around the world, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, 235 million people are expected to be in need…

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Knowledge inclusion is the most important of all forms of inclusion

By Charles Dhewa Digital inclusion, financial inclusion, gender inclusion and several other forms of inclusion have received too much attention over the past few years including 2020. What has been ignored is the mother of all inclusions – knowledge inclusion. All forms of inclusion are meaningless when knowledge existing within ordinary people and communities is…

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WFP urgently seeks funds to support millions of Zimbabweans facing hunger season

With millions of Zimbabweans devastated by a year of drought, rising hyperinflation and COVID-19, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on 17 December 2020 appealed for an additional US$204 million to support over four million of the most food-insecure over the next six months. The appeal comes ahead of the ‘lean’ season, which risks…

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Action Aid Zimbabwe at the Forefront of Building Resilience to Shocks and Disasters

By Joice Mukucha (Staff reporter) Action Aid Zimbabwe is at the forefront of building the country’s resilience to climate change-induced shocks and disasters that affect food and nutrition security. The institution has partnered the Government in launching the Zimbabwe Food Security Policy Brief after noticing the impacts of climate change-induced shocks such as Cyclone Idai…

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Dutch university to monitor expansion of agricultural digital tools worldwide

The uptake of digital agricultural tools and services around the world will be tracked by researchers in the Netherlands to help guide investment and boost food production. Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands will continue the work of the EU-funded institution, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), which is winding down…

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Zimbabweans facing high levels of food insecurity: IPC

The Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) has reported that an increase in food insecurity in Zimbabwe is being driven by poor harvests, reduced income and high food prices but is partially mitigated by increased humanitarian food assistance. Below, Spiked Online Media reproduces snippets from the report: Current Situation Overview (Oct-Dec 2020) Currently, 2.61 million people…

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Harmonized regulation of fertilizers to boost local food production across Southern Africa

Mathew M. Abang (PhD, MBA) When compared with other regions of the world, Southern Africa’s GDP growth between 2011 and 2017 was higher than that of advanced economies. However, the Southern Africa region (the Member States of the Southern African Development Community – SADC) failed to maintain the growth momentum and had the lowest growth…

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USAID Announces Two New Food Security Programs Totaling US$130 Million

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on October 21 two new food security programs, Takunda and Amalima Loko. These five-year programs will target nearly 490,000 Zimbabweans in Matabeleland North, Masvingo, and Manicaland provinces.   “These two new programs will build on the United States’ investment in Zimbabwean people and tackle the root causes…

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Major biodiversity conference kicks off in less than two weeks

The Global Landscapes Forum Biodiversity Conference will be held under the theme, ‘One World—One Health’ and will run on 28 and 29 October 2020 from 9 a.m. Bonn (UTC/GMT+1). WHAT: Halting biodiversity loss is essential to tackle the climate, food and global health crises, but how to turn ambitious green recovery pledges into concrete solutions that are feasible…

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Why COVID-19-impacted World Food Day 2020 is the time to prioritize investments in food systems

By Wambui Gichuri COVID-19 lockdowns and decreases in incomes have generated a double demand shock – increasing the number of poor and vulnerable people, particularly in Africa’s cities World Food Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization, but celebrations on 16 October were muted due to the coronavirus….

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