Discuss why food security situation in Zimbabwe is worse off than it was in the first decade from 1980 to 1990.

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Name                                                                                              Ivy Pedzisi

Course                                                                                            Agric Policy

Course Code                                                                                  AGEC 312

Registration number                                                                   R088787Y

Assignment

Question : With the aid of examples drawn from Zimbabwe’s 30years of Agriculture and Food Security policies, discuss why food security situation in Zimbabwe is worse off than it was in the first decade from 1980 to 1990.

Answer

Food Security Trends

Since 1980, the Zimbabwean economy has been experiencing  uneven rates of economic growth, that is, it had been fluctuating but generally the annual average growth rate was about 3,2% from 1980 to1990. This growth rate was rarely above the population growth rate of about 2,9%. This was thus a good indicator of economic growth. This was accounted for by many bumper harvests  which took place during that season between 1980 and 1990 meaning that the nation was food secure compared to the 1990 to 2000 decade. Evaluation of this food security was based on the total amount of grain in the country during a specific time period in relation, at a national level.

In Zimbabwe, the consumption period that was considered was equivalent  to the marketing period from 1 April to 31 March of the next year. The most staple grains used included maize, which contributed over 70% of the calorie requirements. Maize production then started to decline from the year 2000 to date, whilst similar trends occurred in wheat production as well. This decline was probably due to the displacement of white commercial farmers who had irrigation infrastructure for agriculture production especially wheat.

Increase production in the 1980s was due to improved technology and improved agricultural  services to smallholder sector. The smallholder sector increased production and accounted for 60% of the marketed maize output to the GMB(Grain Marketing Board). At the peak of production in 1980, GMB held over 3years of food security reserves and over 8 years supply of small grains. This thus established Zimbabwe as a food basket and cornerstone for the southern African region during times of political instability in other countries. Food  insecurity however started in the next decade between 1990 and 2000 but was immediately mitigated by the stocks of reserve grains from the GMB and food imports. Unfortunately for the next decade this food insecurity paradox was very difficult to solve due to the decreased food production and very low reserves to sustain the nation during that period.

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Policy Implementations    

Accompanying the erratic economic growth in the 1980 to 1990 decade was the very low rate of employment creation which was seen less than 10000 jobs being created in  the formal sector for that period annually. The number of school leavers that joined the labour market was estimated at 200 000per per year making the question of unemployment a critical problem that was faced by the economy of that time. The poor economic growth thus resulted in stagnant or declining per capita real incomes expressed by decreasing standards of living.

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