GOVERNMENT is working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to review the food security situation and outlook in the country to come up with the appropriate response strategies and mechanisms.
This comes as President Mnangagwa last week declared a state of disaster due to the El Nino-inspired drought that is threatening the country's food security.
The two parties held an urgent high-level meeting in Harare last week co-chaired by Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (MoLAFWRD) permanent Secretary, Professor Obert Jiri. The objective was to collaboratively assess the current drought situation while exploring how FAO programmes can build resilience for the country and plan for interventions in consultation and with support from the Ministry.
The parties agreed on an action plan for short and long-term interventions to address the challenges being encountered in the agriculture sector through open data, early warning and anticipatory actions as well as traditional response action.
The action plan will be spearheaded by a team of technical experts from FAO and Ministry of Agriculture.
Prof Jiri said the engagements were important to strengthen collaboration between FAO and Government in responding to the effects of the El Nino induced drought.
He stressed that they had agreed on key action plans to respond and address the short and long-term effects of the El Nino, affirming and upholding the collaborative partnership between the two entities.
Considering that 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture for food and income, urgent short and long-term interventions play a key role in averting severe food insecurity and damage to livelihoods.
During the high-level meeting, both parties presented and reflected on the current status of the food security situation and outlook with the objective to identify synergies and areas of collaboration to assess and mitigate the risk of agricultural livelihoods degradation due to El Nino.
Leveraging on FAO's Strategic Framework 2022 - 2031 and its work in emergencies, the meeting came at an opportune time when FAO had already embarked on a regional assessment of the impacts of El Nino in Southern Africa and Zimbabwe's assessment will be finalised in May 2024.
With the 2022 - 2026 Country Programming Framework (CPF) approaching its mid-term, FAO presented the current milestones in implementation of the CPF, highlighting the challenges encountered including the funding gaps and resource mobilisation efforts.
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FAO also presented its work on global corporate and flagship initiatives including Hand in Hand Initiative (HiHi), Digital Villages Initiative (DVI) and the One Country One Priority Product (OCOPP).
HiHi is one of the initiatives, which Zimbabwe can take advantage of in responding to El Nino. For the past two years, the HiHi in Zimbabwe has set precedence in terms of public, private and development financing for investment facilitation at national, regional and international fora.
The OCOP is a country-led and country-driven initiative that focuses on Special Agricultural Products (SAPs) with Zimbabwe already focusing on the traditional soya bean value chain. The DVI seeks to transform rural economies for the better through digitalisation.
Meanwhile, FAO sub-regional coordinator for Southern Africa and representative to Zimbabwe Dr Patrice Talla said they had the opportunity to elaborate more on FAO work.
"Today, we had the chance to systematically plan and receive guidance from the Government on how to harmonise and optimise delivery and impact in responding to the effects of El Nino," he said underlining the critical importance of consultative and multi-sectoral involvement of key stakeholders in this process.
Both parties also agreed on intensifying promotion of crop diversification with the Government implementing policy decisions anchored on use and adoption of traditional grains, which are resistant to many crop diseases and pests and can survive adverse climatic conditions such as this El Nino.
FAO also committed to support the Government in scaling up and linking irrigation and mechanisation for small-scale farmers with a strategic thrust on private sector inclusion.
