By Charles Dhewa When your favourite indigenous fruits are in season, take a few samples and keep in the freezer for six months to a year and see what happens. Although touted as part of the solution to food and nutrition security in Africa, cold chain is yet prove its relevance for indigenous fruits and…
By Heidi Jones Now, many countries are beginning to lift nation-wide lockdowns imposed due to coronavirus. But their economies are in a crippled state. Many people have lost their jobs, and almost everyone is in an altruist mode. We have not had holiday trips, watched a theatre show, or witnessed a sporting event for the…
By Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA) The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic is a health and humanitarian crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the country. The pandemic comes at a time when more than 4.3 million people are severely food insecure in rural…
The philanthropy in the “Iron Lady” as Betty Kaseke has come to be known because of her ability to conquer criticism and character assassination has refused to die as she focuses on community development through the Betty Kaseke Foundation. Carrying the poise of a beauty queen that she is, Betty Kaseke yesterday through her foundation,…
By Nimrod Ushe Nerumedzo is a national monument popularly known for a swarm of stink bugs (Harurwa) which throng annually to that place between the month of April and August. During that time, citizens of Bikita District, pour libation of traditional beer in petition and sacrifices to please the ancestors/vadzimu/amadhlozi for their precious gift of…
New research from the Tufts Global Development and Environment Institute finds the billion-dollar Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is not living up to its promises By Stacy Malkan Massive investments spent promoting and subsidizing commercial seeds and agrichemicals across Africa have failed to fulfill their purpose of alleviating hunger and lifting small-scale farmers…
By Anyway Yotamu Glytime Foods has made it into the regional markets despite financial challenges faced by the business community in the country, by securing a contract to supply its products into neighboring Zambia. The company specialises in the manufacturing of honey and healthy cereals. Speaking during a media tour organised by ZimTrade in Harare…
Securing healthy diets for the billions who cannot afford them would save trillions in costs More people are going hungry, an annual study by the United Nations has found. Tens of millions have joined the ranks of the chronically undernourished over the past five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple…
The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will provide $60.55 million toward the World Food Programme’s (WFP) 2020/21 Lean Season Food Assistance program in Zimbabwe. The lean season assistance will begin in August and will feed nearly one million people during the peak of the season, from January to April 2021. …
As the UN warns of an impending global food emergency, researchers in health, nutrition and agriculture have united to support COVID-19 response, recovery and resilience. Montpellier, FRANCE, June 23, 2020 – Leading researchers across health, nutrition and agriculture have launched a new COVID-19 hub to consolidate existing scientific evidence and support response, recovery and resilience…
By Charles Dhewa COVID-19 has revealed the importance of understanding the roles of different actors in Africa’s food systems. When roles and responsibilities are unclear, smallholder farmers are exposed to conmen. For instance, in Zimbabwe farmers are losing produce to unregistered buyers. The situation would be better if all buyers were registered and the trading…
Zimnat has found an innovative way to interact with and entertain its clients during the Covid‑19 lockdown, by holding online cocktail parties, which it has branded Gungano/Umhlangano Online Cocktail Parties. The first of these was held on Friday for Zimnat Life Assurance corporate customers. More will be held in the coming weeks. Invitations to attend…
By Million Belay (Ph.D.), General Coordinator for Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa Ever since I saw the video of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 25th May, killed by a policeman who knelt on his neck for NINE MINUTES, while he was calling for his dead mother and for mercy, I have been…
The brand’s latest launches are just a few of the innovative ways MAGGI is meeting its consumers’ digital and nutritional appetites Nestlé (www.Nestle.com) brand MAGGI has launched a first-of-its-kind website in Central and West Africa, offering fresh new twists to well-known African dishes. It is also serving up a second season of Yelo Pèppè – its popular online nutrition…
By Ronnie Chisamba An ordinary Mount Pleasant mother has brought smiles to many residents in Chitungwiza and the surrounding areas by providing food and other necessities during the ongoing Covid-19 induced countrywide lockdown. Samantha Shingirai Murozoki (35), a married mother of 2 has brought smiles to the less fortunate in the community of the satellite…
By Anyway Yotamu GOAL Zimbabwe, through funding from ECHO and in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, has launched a lifesaving nutrition programme which will reach almost a quarter of a million children under the age of five years for the next 12 months. The Nutrition Emergency Response for Early Detection and…
By Habakkuk Trust Rural communities in Matabeleland have expressed concerns over the transport costs incurred in receiving food handouts from Social Welfare. According to reports obtained from Habakkuk Trust Community Advocacy Action Teams, beneficiaries of the food aid are required to pay costs towards the transportation of maize. Despite the declaration of drought as a national disaster,…
It’s World Baking Day today, May 17, when bakers, chefs and culinary enthusiasts will share delight in all the treats that baking yields across the world. DStv will join in the fun by highlighting some of those treats with a selection of baking-themed programmes on the day of commemoration, part of its ongoing offering of…
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 Habakkuk Trust Community members in various parts of rural Matabeleland have called on the government to ensure that subsidized mealie meal reaches their communities as they face food insecurity and are in dire need of affordable commodities. Access to subsidized mealie meal has been a source of conflict in most urban areas as citizens…
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 Adam Molai Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organisation running programmes to ease poverty amongst underprivileged, has come to the rescue of nearly 100 families in Marondera amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With the effects of the pandemic being felt globally, the foundation has pushed to continue supporting the communities who need food assistance the most. The…
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 Dumisani Nkomo (CEO, Habakkuk Trust) The extension of the lockdown is reportedly exposing more community members in various parts of rural Matabeleland to deepening food insecurity and hunger. While most communities appreciated the government’s decision to extend the lockdown as a way of preventing the spread of COVID-19, some have raised concerns over access…
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…
Food security situation – Question and Answer Zimbabwe is facing a debilitating food crisis on the back of climate change induced droughts. In its Humanitarian Plan for 2020, issued in March 2020, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said seven million people in urban and rural areas in Zimbabwe are in…
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…
More than 4.3 million people in Zimbabwe are acutely food insecure or classified in IPC Crisis or Emergency phases. That equates to 45% of the rural population in need of urgent action. The situation would be worse if not for a large-scale humanitarian food assistance programme ongoing in the country. Currently, 45% of the rural…
By Claude Maredza Part 1 “Whoever does not inform his children of his grandparents, has destroyed his child, marred his descendants, and injured his offspring the day he dies. Whoever does not make use of his ancestry has muddled his reason. Whoever is unconcerned with his lineage has lost his mind. Whoever neglects…
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 Jessica Smith The merrymaking season is here, and like many people, all you can think of is making a refreshingly sweet drink that will delight your family. If that’s what you need, then we’ll show you how to ditch your old mug of mulled wine and try something new. Homemade drinks are a…
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 African Development Bank (https://www.AfDB.org/), the African Union Commission, along with the government of Lesotho, will host a dinner for the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) on Saturday 8 February 2020, on the sidelines of the 33rd African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The dinner is an opportunity for African leaders to draft recommendations…
By Anyway Yotamu The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Dr Sekai Nzenza has issued a stern warning to retailers against hoarding of the maize meal with regards the Roller Meal subsidy programme. The statement comes as retail shops are reportedly running out of maize meal due to panic buying by shoppers and hoarding by some…
By Dr Vandana Shiva George Monbiot’s Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming – and save the planet is a dystopian vision of the future, with no people on the land, and humans eating fake food produced in giant industrial factories by genetically engineered microbes. As Monbiot concludes in his article “Farmfree food will…
The Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA) is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to make attainable and measurable commitments in preparation for the 2020 Japan Nutrition for Growth Summit. “As the country’s Civil Society Alliance in Scaling Up Nutrition, we applaud the government of Zimbabwe for making a commitment during the…
The European Union has mobilised an additional 16.8 million EUR (approx. 18.7 million USD) to help address emergency food needs and support vulnerable people in Zimbabwe. The funding comes as large parts of the country and the wider region of Southern Africa are in the grip of the harshest drought in decades, which is compounded…
Dealing with transboundary pests is tricky at the best of times. Standards, practices, capacity levels and engagement vary across countries and regions, and responses are often ad hoc and ineffective. However, matters become even more complex when the pest in question flies over borders, threatens the food security and livelihoods of millions, and causes severe…
By Arvin Donley LONDON, ENGLAND — Total grains trade is forecast to reach an all-time high of 375 million tonnes in 2019-20, up 3% from last year, according to supply and demand forecasts presented at the International Grains Council (IGC) 50th Council Session on Dec. 3. The IGC put total grains (wheat and coarse grains)…
By Joyce Mukucha As a developing nation seeking to intensify socio-economic revitalisation and move towards attaining an upper middle society by 2030, Zimbabwe is set to unpack vast opportunities through an interactive, exciting and educative programme as it will participate at the Expo 2020 Dubai. Zimbabwe will be exhibiting its culinary skills as well as…
Subscription video on demand services haven’t fully addressed the needs of the majority of consumers in Africa, and the end result is take-up running well behind that seen in other economies. Showmax is now set to change this with the launch of a new product designed specifically for Africa featuring African content and live sport…
Africa’s most-loved storyteller shares exciting content plans for 2020 MultiChoice Group (MCG) hosted its second annual media showcase, under the theme ‘Africa’s most-loved storyteller’, in Johannesburg today with representatives from across the African continent in attendance. “Much has been achieved since our first showcase event,” shared Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Group CEO of General Entertainment….
