Grain supplies for vulnerable families

Precious Manomano and Tariro Stacey Gatsi

While families who need allocations of grain to survive, especially in the coming months when they might have run out of what they harvested last season will be helped, the Government thrust will be on helping everyone grow enough food by joining the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme at a sufficiently intense level.

So as far as possible those receiving rations of grain will now be required to prepare at least three Pfumvudza plots to qualify, unless there are some special reasons why they cannot. Already there has been a major reduction in grain support since the start of Pfumvudza and the emphasis is on supporting production.

The basic outline of the new effort to ensure that people grow their own food rather than rely on grain aid were outlined by Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries , Water and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka and Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare July Moyo, in a joint statement.

Under the scheme, families needing extra food will be helped to grow more.

“The family households commit to undertaking progressive measures to reduce future food insecurity by completing the designated form to enrol for a supplementary Pfumvudza/Intwasa plots to access grain. The family commits to a monitoring schedule administered by Agritex. 

“The village head assists vulnerable households such as child headed and elderly to undertake the above aspects. A register for such household should be produced and updated by Agritex and the Department of Social Welfare annually,’’ said the Ministers.

Since the countrywide introduction of Pfumvudza model for the 2020-2021 summer season Zimbabwe has made remarkable progress in the quest to achieve rural household food security, with many families now able to grow more than they need and earn income.

The remaining food insecure households have largely been in the drier agro ecological regions 4 and 5 and it appears that most of the food insecure households have not fully embraced Pfumvudza.

Over the last three seasons Pfumvudza has been modified to improve output, largely through selection of the best crops and varieties for each area. 

The basic Government policy is that families should be growing their own food, with modest surpluses, rather than relying on handouts, although the Government does step in with food support when needed.

Filling in details during an interview, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri yesterday said the households would get the grain through the Social Welfare Grain Support Programme but must demonstrate that they are committed to undertaking progressive measures to reduce future food insecurity by completing a designated form to enroll for supplementary Pfumvudza/Intwasa Master-class programme administered by Agritex.

“We do not want to promote perennial dependency on food handouts. We want citizens to master the basics of the programme and be able to produce food for themselves and even have surplus. These households or families must have done a minimum of three Pfumvudza/Intwasa plots to access grain.

“As Government, we have realised that it is necessary with immediate effect to link the Government-facilitated Social Welfare Grain Support to vulnerable households to several pre-qualifications requirements to reduce future household food insecurity,” said Prof Jiri.

Government was committed to ensuring that the nation sustained the national food security status attained because of the progressive and practical interventions undertaken by the Second Republic. In this regard no one and no place will be left food-insecure, he added.

He highlighted that the majority of the food-insecure households had not fully embraced the Pfumvudza/Intwasa tenets of timely holing out, timely organic matter placement and liming, timely mulching and timeous observing the best management practices.

“The crops, Livestock and Fisheries assessment reports of 2021, 2022 and 2023 have amply demonstrated progressive yield increases and high household food production country wide. These have been corroborated by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee reports of those years indicating a rapid reduction in the percentage of rural households that are food-insecure,” he commented.

Since the countrywide introduction of the sustainable intensive conservation agriculture model, dubbed Pfumvudza/Intwasa, in the 2020/2021 summer season. The country has made remarkable progress in its quest to achieve rural household food security.

The Government recently made it mandatory for households to establish three permanent Pfumvudza/Intwasa plots each, as a way of guaranteeing food security at both household and national level through the use of sustainable agricultural practices.

Every farmer must adapt to climate smart agriculture to improve their livelihoods and boost the country’s food security.