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Crisis Report - Issue 234
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
November 04,
2013
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Depoliticise
agriculture and food policy, CiZC urges govt
The Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) this week urged the Zimbabwean government
to depoliticize agricultural policies if the goal of food security
is to be achieved.
The call for
government to see agricultural policy and farmland as a serious
economic and human sustainability arena than a tool for partisan
politics came as Zimbabwe struggles to overcome food insecurity,
which has persisted for more than a decade.
While some donors
have pledged to feed about 1.8 million people, feeding the remaining
400 000 of the2.2 million who need food aid until March 2014 as
estimated
by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVac) could
prove difficult, amid recent media reports that Zambia was delaying
on a pre-election deal to supply 150 000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe
on credit.
CiZC Spokesperson,
Thabani Nyoni, said the situation where millions depend on foreign
sourced food aid was unsustainable, adding that it was time the
government revised its agricultural policies in order to depoliticize
them and unlock greater productivity.
“A sober
and less emotional agricultural policy that takes care of various
aspects to unlock the economic value of agriculture is long overdue,”
Nyoni said. “Zimbabwe needs to establish investment options
and create food security and food sovereignty which citizens have
been disenfranshised since 2000.
“We certainly
have the potential to feed Africa, what we need are good, inclusive
and depoliticized agricultural policies that are implemented.
“The land
audit must be done, security of tenure established, land use patterns
regulated, food crop production incentivised and distribution mechanism
professionalized.”
Nyoni expressed
disapproval over the alleged politicizing of food aid distribution
and agricultural inputs by government.
“Those
that are in government must understand that their duty for the next
five years is to govern and deliver such basics like food security
to citizens without excuses, exclusion, and parochialism,”
Nyoni said. “Access to food is a basic right to all citizens
be they black, white, pro- or anti-Zanu-PF.”
Following allegations
of partisan food distribution and sensing danger that non-supporters
of the ruling Zanu-PF party could be sidelined in government food
supplements, two opposition parties Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-T) and National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) on Wednesday also called upon
President Robert Mugabe to give relief to all those who are in need.
Meanwhile, the
Constitution
of Zimbabwe which became fully operational after President Robert
Mugabe’s 7th inauguration in August 2013 emphasizes the need
to establish food security.
Section 15 of
the Constitution obligates the Zimbabwean State to “secure
the establishment of adequate food reserves.”
Section 77 says
that, “every person has the right to sufficient food and the
State must take reasonable and legislative and other measures, within
the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive
realization of this right.”
Zimbabwe once
taunted as the breadbasket of Southern Africa on account of its
vast arable land and previous agricultural prowess, has been facing
a decade marked by food insecurity blamed on a chaotic and partisan
land reform program plus continued politicization of agricultural
policies.
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