East Africa: Food security a matter of serious concern
By Elias Mhegera – Food security continues to be a matter of serious concern for the whole of Eastern and the Horn of Africa. This was revealed during the one day National Consultative Workshop.
A farmer in Morogoro, Tanzania, discusses differences in his maize ears caused by differences in on-farm conditions, at a field day organized by Tanzanian seed company Tanseed International.
The event that was conducted at the Ubungo Plaza in Dar es Salaam on Monday October 22, was convened by the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) which was a host organization in collaboration with the Association of Strengthening Agriculture Research for Eastern Africa (ASARECA).
The workshop attracted researchers, economists, journalists, statisticians and other stakeholders. Dr Francis Mwaijande a researcher associate at the ESRF and Principal investigator in the research of Food Security in Eastern and Horn of Africa said during his opening remarks that food security needs an involvement of a multiplicity of institutions.
For her part Dr Donatilla Kaino acting director of the ESRF,said that the invitation was meant to deal with professionals who can review the results of the project which is already being implemented in five countries. In Tanzania the ESRF is the secretariat, and also the principal researcher in this matter. Dr Kaino said that the ESRF was established as an institution to help the Government with research, and formulation of policies in this area.
She gave a brief history of ASARECA and added that Prof Waichira was invited to become the first executive director of ASARECA, which is geared towards transforming agriculture for improving livelihoods.
The project is sponsored by the World Bank and it is conducted in five countries and there are projects that need to be implemented it in each constituent country.
She added that the agencies are government, private sector, researchers, media, and lecturers in the related area. The overall goal is to achieve implementation and see how they are conducted in the respective countries in order to mitigate the consequences of food crises.
Also the consultative meeting was meant to forecast the framework of involvement and gender desegregation. She added that growth is motivated through various mechanisms and that due to the recent food volatility, researches to come up with evidence based studies and results, as a way to move away from the tradition which has gone out of today’s tastes.
She posed a challenging question as to what causes the rapid increase of prices in Tanzania, and the answer came from her that…
“As these have affected the entire food chain and all of us eat what is produced in the rural areas it is important for us to study food prices as an important component for our livelihood, hence there is a need to conduct researches which will help the government to make informed decisions,” she commented.
She added that the project will provide information that if well utilized will enhance food security like what is championed by the, SAGGOT and the MDGs, these are complimentary projects in order to support the above-mentioned projects.
Representing the Guest of Honour was Ombaeli Lemweli from the National Food Security Division, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives who appreciated the role of research in development.
“Food security is affected by poor infrastructure and many other challenges therefore there is a need of quality researches in order to understand how to rescue Tanzania from the economic woes and food insecurity,” he commented.
He counseled the need for periodic meetings in order to verify the compliance of data and availed information. He also lauded the ESRF for its role in conducting informed researches which have helped the government in so many ways.
For his part Dr Michael Waithaka who represented the ASARECA secretariat said that although these project had started as started as an initiative of research institutes in East Africa but now it has expanded and it has embraced may other stakeholders.
He added that although the basic motive is to increase food production and knowledge management but the focus remains the regional arrangement i.e. dealing with matters affecting two or more countries in the region.
He noted that it was in 2007 when this organization started to become very important and that many of its researches started to be taken seriously in the decision making of the respective countries.
He warned that researchers must study the route the root cause of food prices surging and the volatility is the issue of concern because it is more problematic. He criticized the trend whereby Climate Change has always been the main scapegoat.
“But if there is famine in Tanzania why not get it from Uganda?” he asked. He suggested that policies be formulated in order to make it easier for the movement of food stuff.
He suggested that the issue is to look at how food prices are hiked than many other commodities so it is matter of countries finding a solution to these problems because the markets are not smooth. Many contributors suggested that respective governments increase production of cereals, pulses, roots, fruits and vegetables.
