TACKLING FOOD WASTAGE AND LOSS: WFP and partners take holistic approach to eradicate malnutrition in Zambia

ACCORDING to a recent publication on the World Food Programme (WFP) website, one-third of food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted globally, amounting to a financial loss of US$1 trillion annually.

Food waste generally refers to produce thrown away by the consumer, whereas food loss usually happens at production, post-harvest and processing stages of the food chain. 

It is for this reason that it has, therefore, become critical that arable land is used as efficiently as possible, through reduced loss and waste.

Liato Kashweka is Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) project monitoring and evaluation officer in Katete. He explains that DAPP, with support from WFP and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), is implementing the integrated nutrition and smallholder support project in parts of Eastern and Southern provinces.

Mr Kashweka notes that the approach is, however, holistic.

“So, for us, we know that what we want to achieve at the end of the day is for everyone to produce and consume nutritious foods through an integrated and multi-sectoral approach,” he says.

Instead of just promoting the production and consumption of nutritious foods or discourage people from wasting or losing food, the project, in its holistic approach, is taking a bottom-up approach.

Take for instance Damiano Tembo. He is not only a lead farmer, he is also Yooyani Zone 8 agriculture camp rain gauge minder, trained through the project.

His job is to check readings from the rain gauge whenever it rains. The idea is for farmers in the agriculture camp to avoid food loss that may be caused by a shortage of rainfall amid these prevailing climatic threats.

He says: “…20mm [millimetres] of rainfall is sufficient for someone to start planting.”

Every reading he takes from the rain gauge, which was installed in the centre of the agriculture camp in June last year, is recorded and sent to DAPP and Zambia Meteorological Department, and also communicated to other lead farmers. 

In turn, the lead farmers share the rainfall readings with all the farmers in the community. The information is vital to farmers as it enables them to determine whether the rains are adequate to plant the crop or not.

“What we don’t want is to have crops die because someone planted early or late. That is why every lead farmer who receives the readings has to communicate the message to farmers under them,” he says.

That is not all.

In a quest to maximise on production, the farmers have also been taught about conservation farming.

Agriculture extension officer Ndogime Zulu says the soil in the area is not very good and that is why she encourages farmers to venture into conservation farming, whose benefits, she says, are many.

“That’s why we have come in with the agroforestry technologies such as planting of tree species such as Gliricidia and Musangu which increase soil fertility and supplement and control water levels in the soil,” she says.

In dry spells, the tree species are able to supply water to any plant that is planted in between them.

“When you trim off the branches and leaves, that mulch will keep the moisture for the plants. This is what we recommend mostly for ripping, a type of conservation agriculture,” says Ms Zulu.

Her catchment in the zone is over a thousand farmers, with 28 cooperatives and 16 clubs.

“We have also introduced crop rotation and also inter-cropping. Rotating maize with legumes has been proven to retain 30 percent of nutrients in the soil,” she says.

She is confident that once everyone has grasped and accepted conservation farming, amid threatening climate change effects, the people in her zone will stand to reap even more benefits.

“We want to see how we can incorporate the use of composite as a locally made fertiliser,” she says.

Mr Kashweka adds: “We started by identifying smallholder farmers in the camps who depended on their small pieces of land for farming. We wanted to ensure that on that small piece of land, they can practise conservation farming and earn even more.”

And the improvement has been massive.

“You can ask any of these farmers here, they will tell you that before we came in, they would harvest between 40 and 50 bags of maize on one hectare. But now that number has almost tripled – that’s massive progress, if you ask me,” he says.  

Not forgetting that most food is wasted and lost between production and post-production, the project is also equipping the farmers with knowledge on how to store their home-grown foods.

“We have also been taught about post-harvest loss and how to manage it. Now we even know the period to store whatever we produce and how much will be needed for consumption and the excess that we can sell,” another farmer says.

Mr Kashweka says previously, farmers in the area used unconventional and, sometimes, unsafe methods to store their produce.

“That’s how we came in with the Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags. The other thing is about knowing when and how to harvest the maize and all other produce – the idea is to minimise on loss and wastage,” he says.

PICS bags are effective in preserving grain quality for at least 14 different crops. The technology has been directly demonstrated to more than five million farmers in 56,000 villages in Africa.

The bags were designed by the University of Perdue to provide a low-cost method of reducing post-harvest losses. They are a cost-effective, triple-layer hermetic storage bags which permit farmers to store their grains without the use of insecticides, thus providing them healthy, clean food that can be stored for longer.

“The food consumption ratio has also been an issue. We then brought them (farmers) to a realisation of planning how to feed their families, how to store their food during these most critical times. We also bring them to what food to grow. In the past they never used to grow these nutritious foods and crops.

“Now they either intercrop or diversify. We are talking about cash crops such as cassava, soya beans, and orange sweet potatoes. These foods are not just nutritious, they are also marketable, and some farmers can sell some of it to afford to buy things like salt and sugar,” says Mr Kashweka.

Mr Stephen Omula is WFP programme policy officer – smallholder support. He notes that in Zambia, post-harvest losses remain a challenge, with crop losses reaching as high as 30 percent of the total harvests.

“With that in mind, WFP partnered with the Government and cooperating partners to strengthen the capacities of smallholder farmers to reduce losses resulting from poor post-harvest handling and storage practices. This is done through trainings in post-harvest management practices and promoting the utilisation of improved, low-cost crop storage solutions like hermetic bags and silos,” he says.

Mr Omula explains that in 2021 alone, WFP, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and cooperating partners, reached about 201,438 smallholder farmers with the trainings, while over 100,000 farmers received hermetic bags to safely store their crops after harvests. Farmers can reuse the bags for more than three harvest seasons. 

He says: “Managing post-harvest losses and food waste is critical to ensuring smallholders, who, in most cases, produce a small surplus, can have sufficient and safe nutritious food for household consumption and quality surplus stocks for selling at better prices.”

As part of sustainability, WFP, working with the private sector, has supported the setting up of the last mile distribution network to facilitate smallholder farmers’ easy access of the hermetic bags.

Note that this article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of Thursday, August 11, 2022.

ZONOBIA TEMBO'S TALE: WFP, DAPP partner to end malnutrition in adolescents

WHEN Zonobia Tembo, a 30 year old mother of four children, heard that her youngest child had a medical condition that could be likened to cerebral palsy, her world started to crumble. 

The news of the condition, a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture was sure to ruin her marriage. Her husband blamed her for their son’s disability to an extent that he had to chase her out of their matrimonial house. 

Ms Tembo now lives in Katete’s Sitolo village, in Chieftainess Kawaza’s area. She moved back to her mother’s house, together with all her four children. 

“My husband shunned me and our son for being disabled, he never tried to provide for him and even refused to be involved in anything to do with him,” says Ms Tembo.

Her other three children are okay.

Cerebral palsy is mainly caused by abnormal brain development, often before birth. Symptoms include exaggerated reflexes, floppy or rigid limbs and involuntary motions, these appear by early childhood.

“He [the child] was born in 2017. First, he started by having fits, and when I took him to St. Francis Hospital, I was told that the child had malnutrition which may have started from the time he was in the womb. They said that I wasn’t feeding him as much while he was in the womb,” she said.

Ms Tembo explains that she was in an abusive marriage and it had taken a toll on her. Because of the torture and torment, she would sometimes skip meals due to loss of appetite that may have been induced by emotional stress.

“I believe that is what contributed to my child to be born the way he was born. I used to have a lot of challenges eating when I was pregnant. You know, sometimes you lose your appetite when you have a lot of things going on in your life. It was difficult for me in that marriage,” she says.

She was married for close to eight years to the man whose details she is not so keen on revealing.

Her son, who was born in 2017, will soon be turning five years old. Despite his age, he still cannot walk, speak or sit independently. 

“After a lot of back and forth visits to the hospital, I was then later told that he has a brain problem,” she said.

She loves him anyway; he is her child after all. “There is nothing I can do. I have been receiving some help here and there, and at least, he is learning to sit independently now,” she says.

Her mother Innocensia Phiri says ever since her daughter was chased from her marriage for giving birth to a disabled child, her life has not been easy – not even in her mother’s community.

She says she has, on many occasions, had to deal with discrimination from members of the community, something she never imagined would happen.

“She’s been here for over two years now. She is my daughter and there is nothing I can do but accept her back,” she says.

Ms Phiri says throughout her daughters’ marriage, reports of her being abused used to reach her - but in many instances, like most parents do, she would just encourage her daughter to be strong and that in any marriage there are challenges.

She somehow feels guilty of every wrong thing that has happened to her daughter.

She says: “Perhaps, I should have listened to her when she complained the first time about what was happening in her house. Maybe that is the mistake I made and I know a lot of parents out there do the same.”

Ms Phiri acknowledges that raising a differently abled child in a rural area is difficult.

“It’s just that some of us have a little understanding of some of these things, otherwise, if it were in another community, maybe they could even have thrown away the child. We have heard of such things,” she says.

Apart from the Government, through the department of social welfare, Ms Tembo’s differently abled child has also been receiving help from organisations such as Development Aid from People to People (DAPP).

Through the integrated nutrition and smallholder support project which is supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), DAPP, as an implementing partner, is building the capacity of locals in the production and consumption of nutritious foods through an integrated multi sectoral approach.

Liato Kashweka is DAPP project monitoring and evaluation officer in Katete. He says the district has a lot of children who are not doing well in terms of nutrition. 

“…and in order to tackle it adequately, we ride on the 1,000 most critical days – and that is how we have been helping these people here and in all the other districts we are implementing this project,” he says.

And in order to prevent starvation of fetuses such as the case of Ms Tembo’s child, Mr Kashweka says DAPP has also been organising cooking demonstrations for pregnant and lactating women where they are taught how to prepare nutritious homegrown foods.

WFP Zambia Deputy Country Director Ms Jayoung Lee says her organisation recognises the nutrition challenges in the country and has in partnership with various stakeholders been supporting the Government’s nutrition improvement agenda. 

“WFP has been complementing national efforts in addressing nutrition challenges by promoting the production and consumption of locally-available nutritious foods, targeting vulnerable populations including pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, children and smallholder farmers,” she says.

Ms Lee adds that WFP provides technical assistance to the Government in generating evidence on nutrition and in integrating nutrition components across national programmes to ensure they are nutrition sensitive.

This article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of Thursday, July 28, 2022.

LUNGA DISTRICT TO LIGHT UP: The Rural Electrification Authority assures island residents

I THOUGHT I had seen it all – until I went to Lunga, an island district that nestles in the vast Bangweulu Wetlands or Bangweulu Swamps in Luapula Province.

For a first-time traveller like me, the terrain to this area, which was declared a district by late President Michael Sata, is both interesting and challenging. If you do not get there by air, the only other way is by water.

Because of this, the district is not an everyday-kind-of-district that everyone is used to. It has abundant water around it, so much that for people to move from one point to the other, they require a boat.

Before it was declared a district, Lunga was part of Samfya. The Zambia Statistics Agency estimated Lunga’s population at 24,005 in 2010, and this was expected to grow to 29,642 by 2020.

Inhabitants live in dense clusters of villages on the islands scattered across the four chiefdoms of Senior Chief Kalimankonde, Chief Kasomalunga, Chief Nsamba, Chief Bwalya Mponda and four other sub-chiefs.

As hard as getting there may be – which may even take days for some due to the choice of boat, the dwellers have to concede to a life without electricity.

“Kuno kwakilafye abakosa [this place is not for the faint-hearted]. It’s very tough here,” says Kelvin Chabu, a resident of the island.

Mr Chabu, who is a local businessman on the island, does not even imagine a bridge or road across the wetlands. “Umusebo teti wise kuno twaliishiba, but tulelombakofye amalaiti [we know a road cannot be built here, all we are asking for is electricity],” he says.

Mr Chabu, who has lived on the island for “many years”, hopes that a time will come when people will stop relying on solar energy and alkaline batteries for electricity.

“That is how we have been living here all along and we are now used to this life. But ndesubila ukuti fingacinjako apa nomba mukwai [I am hopeful that things will change now],” he says. Mr Chabu owns a grocery shop and also trades in locally grown rice.

Since its inception, the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) seeks to provide electricity infrastructure to rural areas using appropriate technologies to contribute to the quality of life of rural communities. 

Currently, the authority is implementing projects using grid extension of the existing network, mini-hydro and solar systems to provide electricity to rural areas in Zambia.  

In line with its mandate and strategic focus, the authority is in the process of providing electricity to Lunga district using solar mini-grids.  

Implementation of phase I of the Lunga solar mini-grid project commenced in 2015, but it has stalled; prompting outcry from residents, including Chief Kasomalunga of the Unga people who has demanded that the authority should expedite the connection of electricity to the island district.

“Iyi project yakale! [This is an old project],” says the traditional leader. He said many meetings have been called in the past to discuss the project, but with very little progress – a scenario he says has left many residents frustrated and hopeless.

Chief Kasomalunga demanded that the REA board of directors, led by its chairperson Likonge Mulenga and management, who recently toured the island, should give him a conclusive time frame when the project will commence and finish.

“It’s not like people have refused this project. They have accepted it wholeheartedly. We are even lucky that we have a new government in place and a new board. If it were those others, maybe I would not have even come. I would have said that I was just going to waste my time, pantu balifilwa! Icalenga na bantu nomba bafulwa ati nililali fikacitika, pantu ku ncende shimbi ficitika mumwakafye umo (The previous group failed and this annoyed people to a point where they started wondering when they would see electricity because in some areas these projects only take a year),” says Chief Kasomalunga.

In response to the demands from the traditional leader, the authority assured that by July this year, transportation of equipment for the construction of a solar mini-grid would commence.

REA chief executive officer Linus Chanda disclosed that the authority has since engaged an American- and Zambian-registered company, Standard Micro Grid, with support from the World Bank, to complete the project.

Without mentioning the total cost of the project and contract, Mr Chanda, who has also explained the challenges that have caused the delay, says the project will be implemented using the public-private partnership model. 

“The challenge we have had in the past is that the contractors we have been engaging underestimated the scope of work. But now we are fortunate that the World Bank has come to our aid, and we have found a contractor, and now it’s just a matter of us transporting the equipment. I am confident that we will stick to the timelines,” he said.

In the same vein, the authority modelled a raft that will be used as a vessel to transport project materials to the site. It procured an outboard motor that will help propel the raft and this has since been delivered to the REA warehouse.

Additionally, the authority, with the help of the Zambia Army, will construct docking platforms at Mpanta and Kasomalunga harbours to help ease the loading and offloading of project materials to the island district that has 18 marshes of land, for the construction of the eight mini-grids.

Once completed, the mini-grids will directly benefit Lunga Basic School, Lunga Rural Health Centre, Lunga district offices, Chief Kasomalunga’s palace, the market and shops, churches, and over 880 households. 

Not only that!

As part of its mandate to electrify rural areas, Mr Chanda has disclosed that REA has engaged the Technology Development and Advisory Unit (TDAU) of the University of Zambia to conduct a wind resource assessment for a possible wind and solar hybrid power generation plant in Lunga district. 

“The energy yield analysis conducted as part of the feasibility study has indicated that it is possible to install a wind turbine at Kasomalunga site to generate power from a solar and wind hybrid system,” he said.

Lunga District Commissioner Mathews Mwewa admits that living on the island is hard, especially for those that are used to town life. He acknowledges that for first-time government workers, adjusting to life on the island is not easy.

“We are in a technologically advanced world where everyone needs to live a better life, especially my officers who may have been raised in a well-to-do family and have been sent here,” he says.

He urged the authority to take advantage of the high levels of water to transport the equipment to the district. “If you keep postponing, you will have challenges when the water levels drop because it won’t be an easy sail on the canal,” he adds.

Mrs Mulenga has also promised that she will ensure that posterity judges her board differently by seeing to it that the Lunga solar mini-grid is implemented as soon as possible.

“There is nothing to show for here and you can see that the people really need electricity. This really gives us an opportunity to focus on delivering on the promises and on our mandate. We have a mandate to bring electricity here, and we are going to do it,” she said.

Standard Micro Grid will be the third contractor to be engaged on the project. The other contractors had their contracts terminated in March 2017 and April 2021 following failure to meet their obligations.

This article  was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of Saturday, July 10, 2022.