BY BUSINESS EDITOR
MBABANE – The government of Eswatini has urged businesses and farmers to increase the quality and quantity of their produce.
The upscale in food production is meant to assist local retailers with produce as more imports would be banned this year.
The Minister of Agriculture Mandla Tshawuka said farmers will be able to access funding through local financial institutions including the Revolving Fund.
He said farmers should first indicate which produce they would be considering and further check the market demand of the product through NAMBOARD.
The Government of Eswatini through the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) requested the Eswatini humanitarian actors and the Eswatini National Food Security Consortium partners in September 2023 for intervention as currently the Government does not have sufficient funds to respond to the humanitarian/food insecurity needs.
The World Bank said there has been no response to the food-insecure communities from June to date (except as planned by RC for October – Jan 2024).
“A complementary intervention is needed to scale up livelihood protection and emergency food assistance but also address underlying factors behind this situation before the peak of the lean season.”
“Livelihood and food insecurity vulnerabilities continue to be of great concern in the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” they said.
ACAPS classification of the food insecurity in Eswatini on 30th November was high. 25% of the population is concerned by the food insecurity vulnerabilities with challenges accessing food needs and water insecurity, with many households still reliant on welfare and social safety nets.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published in August 2023 indicates that approximately 238,500 people (20%) of the population were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent humanitarian assistance in September 2023.
From October 2023 to March 2024, it was projected that approximately 268,000 people will be classified in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis), and nearly 14,700 will be in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency). On average 25% will be facing acute food insecurity in the predicted period.
The regions with the highest prevalence of food insecurity are Lubombo and Shiswelweni, the areas most affected by the drought.
Seasonal forecasts released by the SADC Meteorological Center and the local meteorological department predict a high inclination to the El Nino phenomenon in the January to March period. Currently, the country managed to receive normal rains as the season started though in some areas the rains started late into October.
The current temperatures and irregular rains experienced in the month of November could be early signs that the looming drought may come and could worsen the food insecurity situation. Based on the current observations, there could be another season of crop failure if good rains are not received in the upcoming weeks.
Learning from the 2015/16 drought, concrete action plans for the onset of the drought are needed, especially during El Nino years like this one.
