- Save the Children UK carried out 4 Household Economy Assessments in the Mashonaland Provinces in collaboration with UNDP, the Department of Social Welfare, AREX and Zvimba Rural District Council between July 19th and August 6th, 2002. The assessments form part of a regional initiative to examine food security prospects in Southern Africa until the next harvest in April 2003, led by the SADC-FANR Vulnerability Assessment Committee.
- The assessment covered prime communal and "Fast Track" resettlement areas, commercial farmworkers, and informal mining communities. The food economy zones covered have a combined population estimated at over 3 million people. Sample communities for the assessment were taken from Zvimba, Goromonzi, Seke and Marondera districts.
- Current access to food and income and expenditure patterns were examined for different socio-economic or wealth groups in each area, and prospects for food security over the coming 8 months were then assessed under a variety of scenarios.
The main findings of the report are as follows:
Percentage of Minimum Food Needs Likely to be Accessed, Aug '02-April '03
| Zone |
Very Poor |
Poor |
Middle |
Better Off |
| FEZ 1: Communal |
35-45% |
60-70% |
90-100% |
Food secure; not assessed |
| FEZ 2: Resettlement |
|
45-55% |
95-105% |
Food secure; not assessed |
| FEZ 3: Farm Workers |
25-40% |
35-50% |
85-95% |
110-125% |
| FEZ 4: Informal Miners |
|
60-70% |
90-100% |
Food secure; not assessed |
- Food aid will be required for the very poor and poor groups in all of the zones assessed. This equates to 55-75% of the population in communal areas, and 15-25% in Fast Track resettlement areas. Lack of population data prevented the team from being able to state the numbers of commercial farm workers and informal miners affected.
- Already, the poorer sections of the populations have been observed to consume a very undiversified diet, consisting almost exclusively of maize and vegetables. Incomes are also insufficient to enable households to purchase adequate amounts of basic non-food essentials such as soap, clothing/ blankets, and services such as healthcare and education.
- In FEZs 1 & 2, the population is mainly dependent on food and cash crop production, and on casual or agricultural labouring and livestock sales. Harvests in all areas were severely affected by drought, and only a small number (10-15%) of the better off farmers had any stocks remaining by late July. Low production was also a problem in resettlement areas as most new farmers lacked the inputs to cultivate more than 20-50% of their allocated land.
- While the middle and better off should be able to access adequate amounts of food mainly through purchase of grain using cash from crop and livestock sales, the poor will rely primarily on labouring to access food. It is unlikely that opportunities for such work and the payment rates will be adequate to employ all of those needing grain, and their deficits are therefore expected to only be partially bridged.
- For resettled farmers, there is a particular and urgent need for agricultural input credits or other support to production, and also for improved infrastructure and service provision if the land reform programme is to be beneficial to them.
- Food aid needs are estimated based on a specified scenario. Many key variables will influence the food security situation between now and April 2003, and monitoring will be required to verify whether the assumptions used in this analysis turn out to be correct. In particular, it will be necessary to monitor GMB/ commercial supplies of grain on the market and their prices, the ability of farmers to access inputs for cultivation, the levels of production in the coming season, and therefore the availability and payment rates for agricultural labouring.
- Livelihoods for commercial farm workers and informal mining communities are income-based, rather than production based. Those who are currently employed in both sectors earn a range of incomes, but the majority are on low wages whose value is increasingly being eroded by increases in the prices of basic commodities. Food and non-food baskets have become increasingly undiversified, and this trend looks set to continue. Nominal incomes in one mining community, for example, rose by only 69% over the last year while the price of maize rose by 324%. Elderly and disabled miners who can no longer work underground are particularly vulnerable in this regard.
- The closure of many commercial farms has had a very serious effect on the welfare of farm workers, and also on communities whose income was supplemented by seasonal employment on farms. Some farm workers have received retrenchment packages, but most have not been resettled and many do not have communal lands to return to. Therefore their long-term future is very uncertain. In the short-term, those who received no retrenchment packages or whose packages have now been exhausted are the most food insecure of all communities visited and are at serious risk. They have no formal incomes, and are largely unable to access casual or agricultural work from newly-resettled farmers.
- The closure of many more commercial farms during the reporting period makes it vital that Government and the humanitarian community rapidly acts to address the situation of former commercial farmworkers who to date have been marginalised by both sets of actors.
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