Hungry villagers forced to compete with wild animals for food

Late into Zambia's long, dry season, the Victoria Falls are not at their most spectacular. Undeterred, bus loads of tourists still stop here daily to view the torrent. Most are unaware that a scarcity of water in the surrounding area has driven many rural communities to the brink of starvation. Poor rains early in the year saw the total failure of most crops in southern Zambia. As well as decimating the livelihoods of the area's predominantly subsistence farmers, the drought has resulted in a severe shortage of maize, the country's staple food. Maize prices have since escalated to way beyond the means of most Zambians, the majority of whom live on less than a dollar a day. In the village of Koma, in the nearby district of Kazungula, families have long since consumed any surpluses remaining from last year's harvest. Even the seeds that would normally be set aside to ensure next year's harvest have been eaten. Wild fruits that would usually supplement the villagers' diet are now their main food source. "There's serious hunger here," said Koma resident, Lackson Siamukapi. "We're competing with monkeys and baboons for the fruit and by the end of November these fruits will be finished." Desperate to fill their stomachs, children sometimes eat the indigestible seeds of the fruits. Diarrhoea is common and malnutrition is increasingly a fact of life. But the children of Koma are luckier than many. Through a World Food Programme (WFP) sponsored school feeding scheme, they at least receive a daily portion of nutrient-enriched porridge. A few kilometres away in Chazanga village, there has so far been no outside assistance and villagers are increasingly fearful for their future. The surrounding trees have been stripped of fruit and villagers must now walk long distances to forage for more. They too have consumed the maize seeds that should have been planted ahead of this month's expected rains. "Selling our livestock was our main hope of raising money for seeds but now most have died from disease," said village headman, Rodwell Sidiwa. Government allocations of seed and subsidised fertiliser for Kazungula have been cut by more than half since last year, leaving district agriculture and cooperatives official, Katupa Chongo, with the task of dividing just 150 packs of fertiliser between 3,000 farmers in the area. Pleas for additional rations, he says, have fallen on deaf ears. "The government gave out a certain amount of money that's been exhausted," Chongo told IRIN. "The government prefers to give fertiliser to districts that aren't drought prone like Kazungula. The poor will remain poor." To compensate for the shortfall, international NGO, CARE, along with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization plan to deliver seed packets to some of the more vulnerable households this month. But even the combination of seeds and rain may not be enough to prevent the cycle of hunger from repeating itself next year. A recent outbreak of disease has wiped out most of the cattle needed to plough the fields and hand cultivation will mean a smaller than normal harvest. Disease has also killed most of the pigs and chickens that had not already been sold to raise money for food. There are no commercial farms in the area that could provide piecework and most of the tourism jobs in the nearby town of Livingstone go to residents. The villagers report that the sale of wild fruits and brooms made of grass are their only source of income but that both the fruit and the grass are running out. "There's nothing unless someone assists us," said Sidiwa, the Chazanga village headman. In this drought-prone area of Zambia, adequate assistance has been forthcoming during previous food shortages. But WFP coordinator for the Livingstone area, Peter Otto, fears this year may be different. Otto estimates that the government's recent appeal to the international community has come too late to fully mobilise the increased relief efforts needed in the months between now and the April harvest. That delay was despite early warning of the growing problem.

After the failure of this year's maize crops due to lack of rain, many rural households in southern Zambia are staving off hunger with wild fruits such as these.

The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, a government agency, alerted the cabinet in July that an estimated 1.2 million people would need food relief, but it took a further three months for the appeal to be made. The government also waited several months to heed the recommendations of organisations like the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to lift the 15 percent duty on imported maize. By the time the duty was finally abolished last month, traders were faced with much higher maize prices. Both imports and distribution of food aid have been further hampered by a recent fuel crisis resulting from the temporary closure of Zambia's only oil refinery. Meanwhile, the figure for those needing food relief has risen to between 1.7 and 2 million people. Makonka Health Clinic, which serves about 100 villages in Kazungula District, is only treating one 2-year-old boy for severe malnutrition currently, but Sister Clarina Ndona expects to see more and more cases in the coming months. "Instead of people coming for treatment, they come for food," she reported. IMPACT OF AIDS Patients with HIV, whose immune systems are already compromised, are particularly at risk from poor nutrition. Ndona noted that of the 25 HIV patients who had begun antiretroviral treatment through the clinic, four died because their bodies were too malnourished to handle the powerful drugs. The HIV prevalence rate for the Livingstone area is estimated at 31 percent, almost twice the national rate, with malaria also a major killer, taking an estimated 50,000 lives a year. In the villages that IRIN visited, most households were caring for at least one orphan, some as many as six. The loss of breadwinners and the increased burden on family incomes already stretched too thin has only compounded the food crisis. Mandalena Namasiko, a widow from Koma village, recently lost the last of her six children to disease. Soon her seven orphaned grandchildren will arrive, adding to the four she is already caring for. WFP assigns monthly maize rations to households in the village that are caring for orphans but Namasiko says it is only enough to feed them for a week. For the remainder of the month they survive on wild fruits. Chongo believes that, while food relief can help address the immediate crisis, southern Zambia's future food security will depend on the changing of livelihood patterns. His department is working to wean local farmers off an over-dependence on maize. In an area with such erratic rainfall, more drought-resistant crops like cassava, sorghum and cowpeas tend to fare better. The problem with this approach, says Chongo, is the lack of market incentives to grow other crops besides maize. "The economy revolves around maize," he explained. "You don't even need cash if you have maize, you can use it to barter for other goods." Encouraging crop diversification and providing seeds and fertiliser also fails to address the key constraints caused by lack of infrastructure, poverty and disease, notes Chongo. "We've given specially treated seeds to some communities and they've washed them and eaten them," he said. "They're that hungry." While they wait for more donations to arrive, government, NGOs and agencies like the WFP can do little more than distribute the food they have and monitor the situation. For the villagers of Chazanga gathered under the shade of a tree long-since picked of its fruit, the wait is clearly an anxious one. "If they wait too long, they might come back to find some of us dead," warned Sidiwa.