A global federation going under the name Action Aid is calling upon President Emmerson Mnangagwa to address the “ever-increasing” food costs that have taken place after the war in Ukraine.
The war in Eastern Europe is blamed for disrupting the international food supply chain with half of the grains distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) through the food support programme coming from both Russia and Ukraine.
African countries including Zimbabwe have been getting supplies for wheat, edible oil and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia.
Prices of grain products including wheat and roller meal have risen by 50% since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Action Aid says the government must take policy measures to subsidize food accessibility to low-income people, particularly women and children.
The federation also calls upon the government to increase social protection safety nets and other measures to improve the income of people in urban and rural areas to cope with the increasing food prices.
“The government should scale-up support to smallholder farmers, especially women smallholders and sustainable agroecological approaches to farming, so farmers can improve soil fertility for crop production, without the use of expensive fossil-fuel chemical fertilizers.,” Action Aid says.
The government in the medium term needs to accelerate climate justice as a continental and international priority as climate change is expected to drive 122 million more people into poverty by 2030 according to Action Aid.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa who agrees that the global supply chain both for fertiliser and grain stand imperilled by the conflict in Eastern Europe argues that Zimbabwe needs homegrown solutions.
The Zimbabwean leader, in a state-owned newspaper column also said the conflict is a wake-up call for the country.
“My engagement with the sister Republic of Mozambique, principally in respect of thermal gas-related projects we jointly envisage in the Bizi area of Mozambique, aim to secure energy, and fertilizer needs for our agriculture,” he said.
“Mozambique also offered for joint agricultural projects which we need to pursue both at inter-state and people-to-people levels.”
Fears of food shortage this year are already looming with Zimbabwe having faced a dry spell that threatened crops.
Fuel prices have already gone up in Zimbabwe due to the war in Ukraine threatening to also drive costs of basic commodities up.
