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Impending food shortage; how prepared are we?
2006-01-10 07:56:04
By Editor
It has now become more certain that the country will face an acute food shortage after the failure of the short rains.
The rainy season should have begun sometime in October and ended in December last year but until then many regions still remained dry.
This situation translates into one grim scenario: Tanzania’s food production will drop by about 30 percent, according to experts.
The mathematics on food production apart, the number of people who will face acute food shortage is likely to grow bigger than what can be estimated at the moment.
What might make the situation worse is that no one can tell for sure when the long rainy season will start and for how long it is going to last.
The amount of precipitation is also unknown, let alone the distribution of the rainfall.
The prolonged drought is having a telling effect on food production and availability.
Reports indicate that prices of cereals and other foodstuffs have suddenly shot up in many regions, raising fear of survival among the poor.
In some places, cereals are not available even with the rocketing prices. Tubers and other foodstuffs have become scarce.
Mwanza,Shinyanga, Mara, Coast, Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions are facing severe drought and the supply of cereals in these regions has dwindled, pushing the prices high.
Some districts in twelve regions are already experiencing food shortage as a result of failure of the short rains.
They are Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa,Lindi and Manyara. Others are Mwanza, Mtwara, Mara, Shinyanga, Singida and Tabora.
In effect, half the country is threatened with acute food shortage. This is a serious situation.
In his new year message, President Jakaya Kikwete had said that the government had purchased 10,000 tons of maize from the National Strategic Grain Reserve that would be distributed to the affected districts for sale at 50/- per kilo.
This is indeed a timely measure. Yet from the look of things, the country might need more cereals than what the SGR can supply.
It is important therefore, that the country is prepared for any eventuality.
Experience shows that the major problem is not really shortage of food.
Besides our ability to purchase substantial amounts of cereals from abroad, friendly countries are always willing to supply us with the amount of foodstuffs we need.
This will be the case this time around; we have raised the SOS and the response will definitely be positive.
But the problem lies first in determining our needs. In the previous years, the government often failed to come up with the exact number of people who needed food aid, thus sometimes ordering stocks that fell short of the country’s needs.
May be it is difficult to know the exact number of people who are facing food shortage, but we think that it is possible to make estimates that are as close to the situation on the ground as possible.
The Ministry of Local Governments and Regional Administration should be able to do this as it has functionaries down to the grassroots level and should therefore know the truth.
Having known the approximate number of people who need food aid and their location, the government and other authorities must go further and set up a distribution system that would ensure that the food reaches the needy in time and determine the cost of such distribution in advance.
We think this is important if the target is to stave off possible famine in the areas that are severely affected.
Again, there have been instances in previous years when communities have turned down the offer for food aid because it arrived at the beginning of the harvest season when no one needed it.
There is no point in purchasing large amounts of grain only to let it rot in the godowns because we have failed to distribute it. We are a poor country and cannot afford this luxury.
Then there is the problem of misappropriation of the food aid. There have been instances when food donated for the needy has ended up in the hands of businessmen who have sold it at exorbitant prices.
The intended beneficiaries have continued to suffer because of a few greedy people.
And often those who have been given the responsibility to oversee the distribution of the food are the very people who divert it to businessmen.
The government could do without the embarrassment this time around by making a keen follow up on the movement of the food aid and deal squarely with anyone who diverts the food to be sold for profit.
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