FOOD insecurity is rapidly becoming endemic, threatening the stability of communities and individual families. Many factors can be cited as causes of food insecurity.
They include technical issues related to food production systems as well as human factor issues that have to do with how people approach the problem.
In this series we shall examine closely the issues surrounding food security including strategies that could be deployed to chase hunger out of our villages and urban communities.
We shall start by looking at the human factor issues. It is people, husbands, wives and the children, who are primarily responsible for producing food in the family garden, field or farm.
At national level farmers are fingered as the persons responsible for producing the required food. It is common cause that farmers require finance to carry out farming activities. A number of myths are associated with food production on the farm.
First is the erroneous assumption that all who own or have access to land or occupy land are farmers. The second wrong assumption is that adequate finance will ensure food production. The third false assumption is that those who have collateral for agricultural loans such as immovable titled property are safe destinations for such financing.
We shall look at each of the above assumptions in turn to illustrate the fundamental truth that it is people, not money, who ensure food production to underpin food security. In Shona we say ‘Mari hairime, chinorima munhu!’ (it’s not money that farms but people).
And so, as we search for solutions to the food security challenge facing Zimbabwe and other African countries, we must look for the people who are responsible for producing food.
According to the human factor approach to development theory espoused by Professor C.G. Mararike and the late Dr Vimbai Gukwe Chivaura in their book Human Factor Approach to Development (UZ Publications, Harare, “development begins and ends with people”.
Professor C.G. Mararike summarises the essence of this focus on people when he writes:
“The emphasis of the human factor approach is on the quality of people involved in an activity (food production), their commitment to the ideals of their society, their remaining in position and following a set agenda. What is also assessed is the effort, energy, consistency and persistence which they put in to achieve their goals.”(p 8-9, in Mararike, C.G. ed. Land: an Empowerment Asset for Africa. UZ Publications, 2014).
In Ndebele they say “Vuka uzenzele!” This means stand up and do your own thing! Take action across all the dimensions of the economy as they apply to your specific circumstances and situation.
Or are you waiting to be cared for by those who care? Are you waiting for donors to come and ‘rescue’ you from hunger and poverty?
“Vuka uzenzele!” applies to individuals at all levels of our organisations and society: the father and mother who are heading the family, the ‘sabhuku’ or village head, Mambo, the Chief. We can follow the line of the Government structures from the ward, district, province and all the way to central Government with respect to the individuals appointed into those offices. In companies the call to get up and do something (your assigned tasks) applies to individuals from the shop floor all the way up to the chief executive.
So we have broadly identified the human beings who must take action for anything to move forward as it were. The human factor approach is looking at these functionaries in our organised systems. Are the individuals committed, dedicated and competent to carry out their duties all the time?
Today however, we shall focus on food security and how it is affected by the human factor.
Food security refers to the situation where food is available, accessible and affordable in quantities that are adequate to meet the basic nutritional requirements of the body.
If we look at the so-called farmer, we may seek to know what his competencies are. Can he budget his time and resources so as to timely execute the operations that will result in maximum possible yields? Is he knowledgeable about the agronomical management of the crops he is producing? If not, does the farmer have ready access to appropriate technical advisory support services? Is the farmer motivated to seek technical advice?
Are there experts available and willing to train the farmer? If there is literature containing essential information or managing agricultural production, is it written in a form and language that he can understand?
Does the farmer appreciate the importance of timely operations as they affect yields? Does he have the capacity to diagnose diseases or other problems related to his food production systems?
All the above questions and more point to the importance of the human factor content of the farmers.The human factor content of the farmer is absolutely critical for ensuring sustainable agricultural productivity. How much is Zimbabwe investing in building the correct human factor content in our farmers?
In the next episode we shall examine the human factor contents of other players in the agricultural value chain to see how it affects the systems’ capacity to provide food on a sustained basis.