EXPORT AGRICULTURE & ITS INFLUENCE ON FOOD SECURITY

A study on Zambia’s food security situation published by the Forum for Food Security in Southern Africa reveals that the average percentage of rural household income that is spent on food, is rising. It states that many of these rural households are finding it difficult to feed themselves (https://www.odi.org/sites.../5619.pdf ). These are households that are dependent on agriculture for their economic livelihood.

Evidence of this food insecurity is further visible in the significantly high levels of stunting in children under the age of five (about 40%) and the fact that only 59% of the Zambian population has access to safe water.

Food security is defined as “…all people at all times having physical, social and economic access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (www.fao.org/3/y4671e/...htm ). As such, the four pillars of determining food security include: food availability (e.g. domestic production, food stocks), food accessibility (e.g. ability to purchase food/income, ability to grow food, access to land,), utilization (e.g. food nutrition, preparation and consumption, water and sanitary facilities) and stability (e.g., all the 3 pillars at all times).

While climate change comes first to mind when thinking about threats to food security, the issue of trade and poor market access for farmers also raises concern.While trade brings in the much-needed foreign exchange and contributes to the general development of the agricultural sector, trade poses some negative impacts on the food security of a country. Some of these negative impacts include the fact that domestic availability of some crops can decrease to meet the country’s need for forex and /or international market demand. This translates into negative impact number two which is a rise in food and input prices. Increase in food prices entails that citizens are compelled to eat cheaper food some of which is less nutritious leading to problems of malnutrition. In other words, it is a negative ripple effect.

Furthermore, the price of commodities are determined by the international market fluctuate. Bringing it down to household level of a small scale farmer, this can translate into unstable income and hence food insecurity. Cotton farmers in Zambia are one group that have been adversely affected by circumstances of trade.

It is for such farmers around the developing world, that in May 2017, the consortium consisting of the German NGO - Welthungerhilife (WHH), the Centre of Development Research of the University of Bonn (ZEF) and the WWF Germany, launched the Food Security Standard (FSS) Project with the aim to implement, test and complement the existing criteria within the framework of biomass sustainability standards in food insecure regions.

The FSS Project is premised on the Human Right to adequate food as well as the four pillars of food security. It takes up this Right as a new building block for sustainability standards and a best-practice to ensure that this Right is not violated at local level when producing and trading. The Project seeks to work with stakeholders in respective producing countries and, Zambia is the fourth country in which a pilot study is being conducted as part of the sustainability verification

The FSS aims to provide practical and measurable food security criteria for all kinds of traded agricultural products to ensure that farmers’ household food security is guaranteed and production is sustainable.

According to FSS (WHH) Director, Dr. Raphael Schneider, the Right to Food is not addressed in sustainability standards and the FSS are testing the sustainability standards with a view to make sure that agricultural production for exports to Europe is in line with the Human Right to food. It is worth noting, however, that the FSS is not a process that will create food security but rather it is a tool to monitor how export-oriented agriculture is affecting food security in food insecure regions.

In Zambia, the FSS was tested among small scale cotton farmers it was observed that there are a significant amount of gaps to reach food security.

Dr. Schneider said that the FSS studies revealed that some small holder cottons farmers were occasionally compelled to reduce their household food consumption from 3 meals a day, to 2 or even 1 meal-a-day given due to the instability of the income they get from their cotton.

Given that scenario, what then will the small holder farmer benefit from the FSS?

For the farmers it’s more of an indirect benefit. The FSS will ensure that through an audit process, small holder farmers will disclose their household food security situation and then with that information; a company like a cotton ginnery, would be compelled to then offer some relief in form of better farming practices or directly addressing the situation of malnutrition etc,”