{"id":5886,"date":"2019-10-14T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T06:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5886"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:36","slug":"economic-chaos-is-causing-a-food-security-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/10\/14\/economic-chaos-is-causing-a-food-security-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-zimbabwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Chaos Is Causing a Food Security and Humanitarian Crisis In Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By<\/strong> <strong>Ian Scoones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since Zimbabwe\u2019s land reform of 2000 \u2013 when around 8 million\nhectares of formerly large-scale commercial farmland was distributed to about\n175,000 households \u2013 debates about the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/23\/zimbabwes-agricultural-sector-goes-from-bread-basket-to-basket-case-or-is-it-again-a-bit-more-complicated\/\">consequences\nfor food security<\/a>&nbsp;have raged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A standard narrative has been that Zimbabwe has turned from\n\u201cfood basket\u201d to \u201cbasket case\u201d. This year, following the devastating&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.climate.gov\/enso\">El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>&nbsp;drought combined\nwith&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/03\/cyclone-idai-destroys-zimbabwe-farms-deepening-food-crisis-190329142611666.html\">Cyclone\nIdai<\/a>, some&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/fnc.org.zw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ZimVAC-2019-Rural-Livelihoods-Assessment-report.pdf\">5.5\nmillion people<\/a>&nbsp;are estimated to be at risk of hunger, with\ninternational agencies issuing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/sites\/reliefweb.int\/files\/resources\/ROSEA_Zimbabwe_HumanitarianAppealRevision_06082019.pdf\">crisis\nand emergency alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is unquestionable that this season was disastrous \u2013 only\n776,635 tonnes of maize was produced, more than a third below the five-year\naverage. Nevertheless, the story of food insecurity is more complex than the\nheadline figures suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s true that Zimbabwe\u2019s food economy has been transformed\nover the past 19 years. Aggregate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indexmundi.com\/agriculture\/?country=zw&amp;commodity=corn&amp;graph=production\">production<\/a>&nbsp;of\nmaize has certainly declined, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indexmundi.com\/agriculture\/?country=zw&amp;commodity=corn&amp;graph=imports\">imports<\/a>&nbsp;have\nbecome more frequent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Zimbabwe suffered food shortages, often precipiated by\nEl Ni\u00f1o events, before land reform. These too led to the need for more imports.\nAnd surpluses have also been produced since land reform. For example, in 2017,\nthere was a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/land-reform-is-a-zimbabwe-success-story-it-will-be-the-basis-for-economic-recovery-under-mnangagwa-88205\">bumper\ncrop<\/a>. Some of it was stored and has been used to keep people going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Getting behind the headline figures and understanding an\nincreasingly complex food economy is essential.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/\">Our on-going research<\/a>&nbsp;shows\njust how complicated the picture is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Farming and food<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since land reform, we have been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/\">tracking livelihood change<\/a>&nbsp;in\nresettlement areas in a number of sites across the country. Our research is\nexploring how people have fared since getting land, asking who is doing well\nand not so well, and why. Some of our key findings include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Crop\n     production is higher in the land reform areas compared to the communal\n     lands. Larger land areas allows new settlers to produce, invest and\n     accumulate.<\/li><li>There\n     are substantial hidden flows of food between land reform areas and poor\n     rural and urban areas, as successful resettlement farmers provide food for\n     relatives, or sell food informally.<\/li><li>There\n     is a significant growth of small-scale,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/irrigating-africa-can-small-scale-farmers-lead-the-way-113692\">farmer-led\n     irrigation<\/a>&nbsp;in resettlement areas. This is often not recognised,\n     as production occurs on disparate small plots, frequently farmed by younger\n     people without independent homes.<\/li><li>Trade\n     in food across regions and borders, facilitated by networks of traders,\n     often women, is significant, but unrecorded.<\/li><li>Market\n     networks following land reform are complex and informal, linking producers\n     to traders and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/2016\/05\/01\/small-towns-in-zimbabwe-are-booming-thanks-to-land-reform\/\">small\n     urban centres<\/a>&nbsp;in new ways. Outside formal channels, the volume\n     and flows of food through the system is difficult to trace.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Simple aggregate analyses of food deficits, estimating the\nnumbers of people at risk of food insecurity, do not capture these new\ndynamics. National surveys are important, but&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/16\/food-crisis-in-zimbabwe-2-2-million-a-risk-but-where-do-the-figures-come-from-and-what-do-they-mean\/\">may\nbe misleading<\/a>, and local studies, such as ours, often do not match the\nnational, aggregate picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, what is going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Access to food: complex relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Food insecurity is not just about production, it is also\nabout access. This is affected by the value of assets when sold, the ease with\nwhich things can be bought and sold in markets, the value of cash as influenced\nby currency fluctuations and inflation, local and cross-border trade\nopportunities, and all the social, institutional and cultural dimensions that\ngo into exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When these dimensions change, so does food security. And\nthis is particularly true for certain groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take the case of Zvishavane district, in Midlands province\nof Zimbabwe. In the communal area of Mazvihwa, there was effectively no\nproduction this season. Some got a little if they had access to wetlands, and a\nfew had stores. But compared to 30 years ago, production is focused on maize,\nwhich stores poorly, rather than small grains that can be kept for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How are people surviving? Some seek piecework in the nearby\nresettlement areas; others have taken up seasonal gold panning; others migrate\nto town, or further afield; others get help from relatives through remittances;\nwhile others are in receipt of cash transfers or food hand-outs from NGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With small amounts of cash, people must buy food. It\u2019s available\nin shops, but expensive. So a vibrant trade has emerged, with exchanges of\nmaize grain for sugar or other products. And it\u2019s especially people from the\nland reform areas who are selling their surpluses. Many have relatives who got\nland, and some travel there to get food, but there is also a network of women\ntraders who come and sell in the communal areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aggregate surveys almost always&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zimbabweland.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/19\/food-security-in-zimbabwe-why-a-more-sophisticated-response-is-needed\/\">miss\nthis complexity<\/a>. There are sampling biases, as the importance of the\nresettlements as sites of production and exchange are missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are data problems too, as it is difficult to pick up\ninformal exchanges, and income-earning activities on the margins. The result is\nthat each year there are big food insecurity figures proclaimed, fund-raising\ncampaigns launched, but meanwhile people get on with surviving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not to say that there is not a problem this year.\nFar from it. But it may be a different one to that diagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Economic collapse is causing a humanitarian crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/world\/africa\/2019-09-26-zimbabwes-economy-in-steep-contraction-as-inflation-hits-300\/\">Zimbabwean\neconomy<\/a>&nbsp;continues to deteriorate, with rapidly-rising inflation,\nparallel currency rates, and declining service provision, whether electricity,\nfuel or water, the challenges of market exchange and trade become more acute.\nBarter trade is more common, as prices fluctuate wildly and the value of\nphysical and electronic money diverge. With poor mobile phone networks due to\nelectricity outages, electronic exchange becomes more difficult too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collapsing infrastructure has an effect on production also.\nFuel price hikes make transport prohibitive and irrigation pumps expensive to\nrun. Desperate measures by government often make matters worse. The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.herald.co.zw\/private-grain-imports-now-legal-govt\/\">now-rescinded<\/a>&nbsp;edict\nthat all grain must be supplied to the state grain marketing board undermined\nvital informal trade. Meanwhile, the notoriously corrupt&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindependent.co.zw\/2019\/07\/26\/missing-us3bn-an-indictment-on-mnangagwas-government\/\">\u201ccommand\nagriculture\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;subsidy scheme directs support to some, while excluding\nothers from the provision of favourable loans for government-supplied seed,\nfertiliser, fuel or equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Economic and infrastructural collapse is threatening food\nsecurity in Zimbabwe. Even if there is good rainfall this season, the crisis\nwill persist. Farmers will plant, produce and market less this year. While food\nimports are needed for targeted areas and population groups for sure, this may\nnot be the biggest challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stabilising Zimbabwe\u2019s economy is the top priority, as\neconomic chaos is causing a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/economic-chaos-is-causing-a-food-security-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-zimbabwe-124791\">original article<\/a> on The Conversation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ian Scoones Since Zimbabwe\u2019s land reform of 2000 \u2013 when around 8 million hectares of formerly large-scale commercial farmland was distributed to about 175,000 households \u2013 debates about the&nbsp;consequences&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}