Pro-poor Market Development

Introduction

Can the poor participate in markets? This is a question that is often raised. Yes they can is my answer. As a development practitioner working with development projects that target the poorest of the poor for several years now I have witnessed phenomenal changes in the way that the poor engage with markets. In developing countries particularly in Sub –Saharan Africa the poor should necessarily participate in markets in order to have access to their basic needs. Access to food is normally met through own production at farmer level in rural Zambia. However, in order to acquire income for non-farm products and services farm households have to either sell some of their produce or barter them for goods and services that they need.

Rights Based Programming

In 2005, I was part of the team that developed a food security programme for an international Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) focusing on increasing food security among marginalised food insecure rights holders particularly female headed households, women of child bearing age, children under the age of five, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the elderly in Zambia. The programme was developed using a rights based approach problem analysis in partnership with local Zambian NGOs working in the agricultural sector and other sectors relevant to food security. The main intervention strategies included awareness raising on the right to food, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and organising rights holders in groups for the purpose of improving their access to services and voice in advocating for institutional support from duty bearers. The programme also advocated against structural barriers to food security in Zambia such as policies on land which did not support secure land tenure for marginalised rural communities that depended on land for livelihood. This programme was mainly implemented in Eastern and Southern Provinces and some parts of Lusaka and Central Provinces.

Interventions

The programme was implemented in the period 2006-2010. Some of the key projects implemented by local Zambian organisations focused on providing inputs for sustainable agriculture (especially organic agriculture and conservation farming) creating community based extension systems, creating awareness on rights particularly the right to productive resources especially land. Gender and HIV/AIDS were mainstreamed in all these interventions. Most of the targeted beneficiaries were living on the margins without enough food. One project implemented in Chipata district was focusing mainly on improving livelihood and food security among 2500 food insecure households through community based crop and livestock extension system, promoting income generation through gardening and fruit production and food production through conservation farming, agro-forestry, erosion control and water conservation (contour rigging), creation and registration of groups and cooperatives and creating market linkages for small producers. At inception this project looked over-ambitious. The project was implemented in the period 2006-2008 (phase 1) and 2009-2011 (phase 2) and 2012 (extension phase). 2500 households were targeted in the first phase and 3000 households in the second phase in 13 agricultural camps in Chipata districts. Both phases were targeting the same communities and households with the second phase expanding the target group by 500.

Empowering the poor through sustainable and organic agriculture

At inception, it was a great challenge for the poor to believe that it was possible for them to get out of the poverty trap and be able to produce adequate food for the household needs and excess for the market. Therefore the project management focused a lot on awareness raising on the benefits of producing food cheaply through use of locally available sources of nutrients rather than depending on external inputs such as synthetic chemical fertilisers which were beyond the rich of poor households. The withdrawal of the government from provision of subsided inputs during this period assisted in the causes to rely on cheaper animal and green manure for adding nutrients to the soil. In addition creation of interest groups on contour rigging, conservation farming (pot holing) assisted in removing barriers associated with high labour requirements for the land preparation work that would have deterred labour constrained households e.g. female headed households and PLWHA. Further the project implementation strategy was based on a community based extension system relying on volunteers that were trained in all aspects of agricultural technologies promoted in the project i.e.  Community Agricultural Workers (CAW) to push the agenda on crop production and Community Livestock Auxiliaries (CLA) to push the agenda on livestock rearing.

Targeted beneficiaries created various interest groups on various components of the project e.g. agro-forestry (focusing on planting and distribution of fertility plants), contour rigging (involving in making contour rigging in farmer field with the aim of reducing soil erosion through run off), cassava (focusing on crop diversification through growing and processing cassava), conservation farming (focusing on land preparation through digging ‘pot hole’ or planting stations that retain moisture and nutrients on a permanent planting space in the field), gardening (focusing on cultivation of various crops in wetland or ‘dambos’), goat rearing (focusing on construction of raised goat-structures to reduce animal diseases and collect dropping for use for compost making) and fish farming (focusing on supply of fish fingerlings and supply of fish on the local market).

Conclusion

Employing the various techniques promoted in the project resulted in food insecure households increasing their agricultural productivity and food availability at household levels. In addition, the targeted beneficiaries were able to produce excess for the market especially in the second phase of the project. Facilitating access to inputs and providing knowledge on sustainable agriculture was the key to improving productivity at farmer level. The project also facilitated group organisation which was instrumental in providing the structure for delivery of training as well as sustainability of the community based extension system. Provision of market information in form of a quarterly bulletin played a key role in enabling the targeted household to have a good basis of setting their selling prices and also to take goods to the markets where profitable prices were quoted for their products. Today, most targeted households in this project are food secure and are actively engaging with the market. Many belong to registered groups or cooperatives that are leveraging returns from participating in local markets through bulking their produce and engaging in micro-and medium small scale enterprises at village level. The successes in this project emphasise the importance of facilitating participation of the poor in social economic development through creating an environment in which they can produce cheaply and also organise themselves in community based structures that build their confidence to participate in main stream markets.

Caritas Monze launches Food Security Strategy in Ceeba Village

District Commissioner (DC) for the newly created Chikankanta district in Southern Province, Sylvester Simayaba, has commended Caritas Monze for promoting food security in rural areas through provision of knowledge and inputs for sustainable agriculture. Speaking at the launch of Caritas Monze’s food security strategy in Ceeba Village situated in the Kafue Gorge area on 29^th May, 2012, he pledged government support for conservation agriculture and thanked Caritas Monze for targeting districts in the Zambezi valley that are affected by high levels of food insecurity despite having access to fresh water from the Zambezi and Kafue Rivers. He urged the beneficiaries to drive their own development and put to good use the support they are given and hailed the intervention as a good community based adaption to climate change.

Speaking at the same function guest of honour, Father Waclaw Stencil, Parish Priest for Namalundu Parish, said the food security strategy focuses on supporting rural farmers with irrigation equipment consisting of a 1000 litres water tank, treadle pump and pipes as well as open pollinated seed varieties of maize, beans and okra.

Above: Irrigation kit consisting of treadle pump (left), pipes

middle and 1000 litres water tank (right). Picture courtesy of

Valerie Chanda Chibuye.

The strategy also promotes construction of food and seed grain banks at community level. The launch of the food security strategy is part of the activities implemented by Caritas Monze in the Sustainable Social and Economic Empowerment (SESE) of vulnerable and marginalised rural communities of Southern province in 6 districts with support from DanChurchAid (DCA) and the European Union (EU) since 2010.  Father Stencil thanked DanChurchAid, represented in Zambia through the Norwegian Church Aid/DanChurchAid/ChristianAid (NCA/DCA/CA) Joint Country Programme and EU for their support to SESE which ends in December this year. 1500 rural families in Chikankanta, Mazabuka, Gweembe, Siavonga, Sinanzongwe and Chirundu have been supported with irrigation sets and seeds.   



Above: Fr. Stencil (middle) hands over irrigation kits and seed

packs to headman for Ceeba Village (far right) while DCs for

Siavonga (far left) and Chikankanta (left) look on. 



The launch was also attended by the DC for Siavonga Brave Mweetwa, government officials, Headman for Ceeba Village, representatives from NCA/DCA/CA, Caritas Monze, Maamba, Fumbo and Chirundu Parishes, over 70 villagers of Ceeba Village and the media. The event was characterised by song and dance, a ground breaking ceremony for a 6x3.5 meters food/seed store room and office, handover of seeds and irrigation kits to Headman for Ceeba Village by the guest of honour and the DCs, distribution of t-shirts branded with the treadle pump and main theme of the launch ‘Covwa ube aacalulya mwaka oonse’ which means ‘ride so that you can have food throughout the year’ translated from Tonga and visits to beneficiary gardens.

Bravo Poultry Association of Zambia for preventing importation of chickens in Zambia

Recently many Zambians were alarmed with news that one of the biggest retail outlets in the country had been granted a poultry import permit allowing it to import several metric tonnes of dressed chickens into the country. The poultry industry is one of the biggest employers providing formal and informal employment to many Zambians. Many Zambians earn their living by rearing and selling chickens. They were therefore disturbed that the government had allowed importation of dressed chickens into the country.

The Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) raised concern because the imported chickens were going to be much cheaper than the locally produced chickens causing unfair competition as the local production costs are very high. Based on this the association appealed to government to repel the import permit that it had issued. Yesterday the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock informed Parliament that government had repelled the permit.

Happy New Year

I would like to wish a happy new year to all those that followed my blog last year. A year new always inspires us to reach new heights in our personal lives as well as in our careers. New year resolutions range from losing weight, getting a promotion at work or getting a higher profit for those who run businesses. The national resolutions are mainly expressed in form of the national budgets. The national budget outlines the main development benchmarks and priorities that a sitting government have planned for their citizenery. In Zambia the national budget was presented in the last quarter of 2011 following the formation of a new government that ushered in the Patriotic Front (PF) for the first time as a ruling party.

The national budget presented to parliament by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning has been lauded by various quarters in Zambia as pro-poor. The outcome of the 20th September, 2011 General elections in Zambia clearly indicated that voters were keen to put into power a government that would better their lot. Zambia, classed as a middle income country by the World Bank in 2011, has some of the poorest people in the world especially in rural areas where poverty levels are above 65%. Urban poverty is also extremely high especially in high density areas. Youth unemployment is a huge problem with many young people that have finished college and Universtity education finding it impossible to get formal employment. There are also high levels of casualisation with many people earning very low incomes and working under poor conditions of service. These problems were top of the campaign agenda of the PF who campaigned on the slogan of 'More Money in your Pocket'. Many Zambians were therefore very keen to see how the PF campaign slogan has been translated into fiscal policy through the national budget.

The 2012 budget execution started on January 1, 2012. Some tax measures such as income tax which are expected to bring relief to workers in the lower income brackets are however not expected to come into force until 1st April. In this year's budget the income tax threshhold has been adjusted upwards from one million Zambian Kwacha to two Million Kwacha. This will definitely provide some tax relief especially to some civil servants in the teaching and health professions who are lowly paid. However, more is required in terms of improving incomes for some workers in the private sector working for foreign firms most of whom are not unionised and are poorly paid. In the wake of the PF taking over government there have been many work stoppages related to poor conditions of services in many private firms. This is an indication that more needs to be done in terms of labour laws to protect the rights of Zambian workers.

This new year therefore holds a lot of promise for many Zambians as they look forward to efficient execution of the 2012 budget by the PF government. This government has a lot of responsibility to see that the hope that they raised during the 2011 campaign is not quenched. There is need to put in place policies that promote employment creation especially for young people. The pronouncements by the PF government to increase the retirement age from 55 years to 65 years dampened the hopes of many young people. The government argues that increasing the retirement age will enable some public office workers that still have energy to serve to stay in office without being employed on contract basis. This is good in the short term. However, in the long term it will prevent civil servants to leave employment at an 'energetic age' when they still have the ability to set up private entreprises that can create employment. Retiring at 65 means that most people will not be able to invest their employment benefits in ventures that are productive.  It will also mean that there will be limited vacancies in the civil service at any given time to allow new office bearers to be employed. The upward adjustment of the retiring age has not yet been passed into law and has received a lot of negative criticism from young people and some civil servants.

The new year holds a lot of hope for Zambia. Most people are looking forward to a different way of governance especially with regard to the fight against corruption. In the recent past previous governments have paid lip service to the fight. It is hope that the new government will stamp out corruption especially in the areas of public procurements and awarding of public tenders. There is also hope that institutional barriers to creation of wealth will be addressed.

Climate change and ........

I am in Durban attending 'COP17'  and I can't help but notice that there is no aspect of human living that has not been linked to climate change during this 17th  Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Among the notable issues or aspects linked to climate change as depicted by the various exhibitions around the ICC in Durban where the conference is taking place include environment, agriculture,health, food and nutrition, literature, religion, technology, economics......

This is quite impressive. However, it is also a signal that perhaps we maybe diluting the problem by linking it to so many aspects that we are in danger of not realising how this phenomenon will have profound effects on the way that we live on this planet. We may also be in danger of not realising the significance that climate change is having by threatening the lives of millions of people that live on Small Island nations including Bangladesh where rising sea levels are a real menace to continuity.  Africa is also extremely vulnerable particularly in regions that are susceptible to rising temperatures that have significantly changed lifestyles particularly for farming and pastoralist communities.

It is therefore important that while it is good that climate change and its anticipated effects have resulted in very good technological innovations (electric cars, solar electricity, recycled products e.t.c) world leaders and all well meaning world citizens do not lose the focus on what kinds of actions are needed to save our planet. It is a fact that climate change has the potential to increased business opportunities and economic growth particularly to those nations that have invested in clean energy. However, it is fundamentally important for us to also take a critical look at the way that we are affecting very vulnerable countries that are unable to invest in clean technologies and whose peoples are at the risk of suffering the worst consequences of unpredictable weather as a result of increased green house gases in the atmosphere.

COP 17 presents a chance for many great nations to show leadership by saving the Kyoto Protocol and committing to a new commitment period. It is also important that some of the historically polluting nations also provide resources for adaptation particularly for Africa and other vulnerable regions in addition to development aid. Bishop Desmond Tutu, urged world leaders to take action now because earth is the only home we have during an inter-faith rally held at Kings Park Stadium on Satrurday, 26th November, 2011 in Durban, South Africa. The rally was part of a serious of events in the 'We have Faith-Act Now for Climate Justice' campaign. The campaign has been mobilising youths and faith leaders to play an active role in putting pressure 

Youths present signed petitions in 'ark' to Bishop Tutu at the King Park stadium during interfaith rally

on world government to ensure that COP 17 results in a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol.  He said that if we destroy this home by continuing to act the same way we have done in the past we will all suffer the consequences of our actions whether rich or poor.









Cleric urges PF administration to allocate 10% of national budget to Churches

A cleric in Zambia has called on the new Patriot Front (PF) government to consider giving 10 per cent of the national budget to the church in Zambia. Father Laston Lupupa SJ, Parish Priest at Our Heavenly Father Catholic Church in Chelston, Lusaka made the call during his homily on Sunday this week. The homily focused on a reading from the gospel of Matthew in which Jesus told the Pharisees and the Herodians to give to "Caeser what belonged to Ceaser and to God what belonged to God'' when they confronted him on the question of paying taxes.

Fr. Lupupa said that it was an obligation for citizens to pay taxes to the government and the responsibility of the government to ensure that the funds that were collected in taxes were used for the welfare of all citizens. He urged the new PF government to ensure that monetary resources collected in form of taxes are used prudently and ploughed back into projects that would benefit all Zambians.

He observed that that the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation by the Second Republican President Fredrick. T. J. Chiluba has not been accompanied by allocation of monetary resources in the national budget to the Churches. Most Churches depend on donations from well wishes to carry out capital projects such as building new church structures, hospitals and schools. He further pointed out that despite providing health and education services especially in rural areas, most church missions received very little financial support from the government.  He therefore implored the new administration to consider allocating about 10 per cent of the national budget to Churches. 

Rain, wind and cold air in October?

Photo Courtesy of Mwaka Kayula

This year's October weather has really been very unpredictable. When one wakes up in the morning they are not sure what clothes to wear. Most debate on whether to put on heavy or light clothes. In the recent past, October clothing was very predictable. Ladies would rush to the tailors and bouquent (including salaula) and get some light clothes in readiness for the anticipated hot weather. This October, however, we have been greeted by early rains. In some areas of Zambia the rains have been heavy. They have caused damage particularly to maize at the Food Reserve Agency's satellite depots dotted in most rural areas of Zambia. The photogragh on the left shows some maize that was soaked after a down pour at Batoka FRA depot in Southern Zambia.

Unpredictable weather patterns pose a serious challenge to long term planning particularly for weather dependent social and economic activities. Early rains in October have resulted in FRA making adjustments to their maize storage plans. In the past early rains were expected mainly in the last weeks of October or early November. Now that they have started in the first weeks of October farmers also have to adjust their land preparations and planting plans. Are these some of the challenges that we have to face as a result of climate change? If so, it is important that the country invests in better climate prediction facilities to assist the country to adjust to the changing climate. In addition, the international communities particularly developed nations that bear the responsibilities for the changing climate need to support least developed countries such as Zambia to adapt.

The cost of climate change adapation is enormous. In the case of Zambia thousands of metric tonnes of maize that were produced in last year's farming season risk being wasted if measures are not urgently taken to either move the stock to safe storage or cover exposed maize. Most of the maize was produced with subsized inputs and also bought from farmers at enormous cost to the government revenue. Therefore, if the stock is not secured millions of kwacha of tax payers' money will go to waste. This is unacceptable in a country where more that 60% of the population live on less than a dollar a day with some households only managing one meal a day during the lean seasons. FRA has responded quickly by providing satellite depots with taupaulins to cover the harvest in some cases and transport to move some maize to permananent storage sheds in other cases as reported in the Zambian media.

The cool and mild weather particularly in the evenings is very welcome by most. Apart from the comfort provided to many the weather also prevents high energy comsumption. This could be regarded as one of the postive aspect of climate change. In the past hot October evenings have resulted in high usage of electrical appliances such as fans and air conditioners increasing use of electric energy. The cool weather has also reduced on high numbers disease vectors such as mosquitos and flies which proliferate in times of hot weather.