This has significantly impacted the level of vulnerability of rural and agriculturally dependent communities.
World Renew is working with two of our partners to address food security issues in vulnerable rural communities. In Lundazi, CCAP (Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian) has been implementing an integrated livelihoods and food security program. This year their programmatic focus has been on strongly emphasizing drought mitigation techniques. This includes intercropping with cover crops, minimum soil disturbance, and early planting with drought tolerant hybrid seed. We hope that this will help these communities harvest something even if the worst predictions are right.
The relief program known locally as “Canada” is assisting 2500 households and has 18,453 registered beneficiaries.
World Renew has also been working with The United Church of Zambia in the Mwandi District to implement a large Canadian Food Grains Bank (CFGB) funded drought mitigation program. Kalaluka Kalima is one of our field oCcers there. World Renew in Mwandi District, Zambia (by Kalaluka Kalima) Mwandi District has experienced severe drought in the 2014-2015 season. As a result, many farmers lost the majority of their crop, and in most cases, have experienced a total loss. World Renew, through its Partnership with the Canadian Food Grains Bank and The United Church of Zambia, has attempted to minimize the impact of this severe drought through a Drought Response and Mitigation Program. This program has addressed the immediate household food deficits by providing relief food to the communities across the Mwandi District. It has also introduced school-feeding in nine community schools that are located in the most affected areas.
This has greatly boosted school attendance and maintained child and household nutrition levels during this time of crisis. The relief program known locally as “Canada” is assisting 2500 households and has 18,453 registered beneficiaries. Since September, each household has been receiving fifty kilograms of maize meal, five kilograms of beans, 2.5 liters of cooking oil and 500 grams of salt every month. This will continue until at least April. In addition to this to assistance, each household has received a seed pack containing drought tolerant, hybrid seeds (Maize, Cowpeas, and Groundnuts) and training from the Government Department of Agriculture in conservation agriculture. Families will learn how to intercrop the seeds to get the best out of them during what we expect to be a drier than usual year.
The drought has unfortunately had huge economic consequences for the community.
In order to bring an element of sustainability to the school feeding programs, production units have been created at all nine schools where rain fed crops will be grown. In some cases, rice and vegetables will be grown under irrigation. It will use water from the flood plains and boreholes, delivered by treadle pumps. The program is also looking to provide water to these community schools. In some places children are walking up to 15 kilometers a day to fetch water from the last river that has not dried up. Others depend on shallow wells dug out from the sand that are shared with livestock and wild animals. The boreholes that will be sunk will provide these communities with clean, fresh water. They will also allow the schools to irrigate their production units to ensure the school feeding programs can continue into the future.
We have seen both economic and social impact from the program. The food for work programs have brought a sense of social cohesion to the communities and allowed them to achieve some remarkable things. Housing for teachers has been built at some of the community schools. The community is building a pre-school at Loanja UCZ Church and all communities have been working on ripping and planting the School production units. The drought has unfortunately had huge economic consequences for the community. Given the extent of the communities’ agricultural losses last season, the program beneficiaries would have had no way of accessing the mealie meal, beans, and cooking oil that they have been receiving. Local prices for foodstuffs have more than quadrupled as a result of the drought and currency devaluation. With the drought bringing reduced purchasing power and much higher prices, the people of Mwandi would be starving without “Canada”.
Blessings,
