{"id":409,"date":"2016-06-16T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmushava.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/16\/food-sufficiency-for-rural-households\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:54:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:54:59","slug":"food-sufficiency-for-rural-households","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"Food Sufficiency for Rural Households"},"content":{"rendered":"<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"float: left;margin-right: 1em;text-align: left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"https:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/images\/zimbabwe\/201602\/drought-stricken-maize-field-4X3.jpg\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/images\/zimbabwe\/201602\/drought-stricken-maize-field-4X3.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\" width=\"400\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Add caption<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;   Normal  0          false  false  false    EN-US  X-NONE  X-NONE                                                                          &lt;![endif]--><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">The sustained duration of searing temperatures has levelled a double-barrelled assault on the livelihood of Chiwara villagers in Gutu.<\/span> <\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Like many smallholder farmers in the district, they can only watch in dismay as yellow cornstalks hunch lifelessly into the ground.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">It is no easy test for Gutu peasants, and smallholder farmers in Masvingo, particularly Chivi, Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Zaka, whose livelihood \u2013 or rather lifeblood \u2013 is primarily in the annual crop.<span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">For some, it is not yet clear how much longer their livestock can hold in there. Hollow bellows from struggling oxen report issues of dust and dying pastures. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Cattle are now going for a few bags of maize while at least kicking, lest farmers process the final catastrophe of exchanging a dead beast for maize scarcely the value of $50. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Oxfam Zimbabwe director Jan Vossen called on Government and its humanitarian partners to target vulnerable households whose agricultural efforts are handicapped by bad weather drought-prone areas during a contingency planning workshop hosted by the organisation in Masvingo last week. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cIf we look at Zimbabwe we see that poverty is persistent and structural. The data from the ZIMVAC study 2015 confirm that structurally in Zimbabwe there are around 700,000 people who are food insecure,\u201d Vossen said. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">He stressed the need for Government and its partners to provide both structural and developmental support to natural and manmade crises and guarantee food security for the vulnerable.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Vossen pointed out the need to utilise platforms such as COP 21, SADC Council of Ministers, AU and the One Program approach to mobilise support for inclusive and sustainable development.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Much of the humanitarian support has previously come in form of season-bound food assistance which has not empowered farmers sustainably to thrive in adverse conditions.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">This cropping season, El Nino has disturbed rainfall distribution, causing many crops to fail mid-season while others are holding on their last life. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Smallholder farmers have, in the main, proven incapable of coping given that they rely solely on rain-fed production, with irrigation and knowledge of how to abide climactic adversity sparsely in evidence.<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Vossen said the structural impact of humanitarian interventions has been previously limited and sometimes flawed by the application of the right methods in the wrong context.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cIn some cases, it has come with a downside, considering the environmental degradation associated with crop production in dry land areas better suited to livestock and other context-appropriate livelihoods strategies,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cThe idea of food self-sufficiency for rural households has spurred some of this, which upon careful consideration of domestic, regional and international market capacity can be seen as neither a realistic nor desirable food security objective,\u201d he added. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Vossen observed that the extremely vulnerable need a range of services and support tailored to their own capacities and limitations. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cEnsuring that we differentiate between the needs of the extremely vulnerable and what is needed to grow the agricultural sector will make a huge difference in building the resilience of both,\u201d Vossen said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Oxfam and its partners\u2019 field efforts include the Limpopo Water Governance Program which aims to find structural solutions to the water problems in the Limpopo River Catchment Area.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Some smallholder farmers in Natural Regions 4 and 5 have made a second go at the season after the failure of the initial maize crop, while others are taking chances with the recent rains and only beginning to plant.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Wells have also run dry in many pockets of Masvingo and Matebeleland North and South, forcing villagers to wake up in the deep orange of the morning and travel up to three kilometres to access the few enduring wells and boreholes. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Water, now evident for the lifeblood that it is, is never to be thrown out before exhausting every possible chore. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Oxfam Zimbabwe humanitarian programmes coordinator Joel Musarurwa said there is need to reduce the impact of adverse climate conditions on vulnerable communities by building on their inside strength. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Musarurwa said food security could be ensured through the use of early warning systems, food reserves, social protection systems and community-based resilience. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cWe need to link our response with development, risk analysis approaches, livelihood and market analysis and improved contingency planning,\u201d Musarurwa said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Oxfam has forecast that risk from disasters will increase in many countries as more people are exposed to extreme weather conditions, economic shocks on the poorest and new compound risks.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">The group\u2019s report calls for better understanding and addressing complexity of risks and taking into account the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of communities instead of using one-size-fits-all approaches.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Community-based resilience is the ability of a group of people to anticipate, absorb and recover from shocks with little or no external help, despite changes that take place over a longer time period.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">In Zimbabwe\u2019s context, this involves moving away from reliance on rain-fed production and empowering communities to pursue options that fit their environment.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Matebeleland North districts, particularly Lupane and Nkayi, have been partnered by Government and its development partners to set up infrastructure which will help them commercialise livestock production, including feed lots, sale pens and dip tanks. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Musarurwa said urged for a market-based approach to humanitarian assistances as shaped by existing market systems. Such an approach aims to promote fair access to markets and to strengthen stakeholder capacity.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cDevelopment partners need to progressively become market-based, to better understand market dynamics and work with private sector,\u201d Musarurwa said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">He explored the possibility of moving away from special emphasis on food aid to cash-transfer programming.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">He said this will avert the risk of disrupting existing financial ecosystem of the communities, an approach that equates digging a pit to fill another.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cMarkets are essential for providing people access to basic goods and services, for people\u2019s livelihoods \u2013 and for economic development. Disrupting or ignoring markets during an emergency will potentially destroy or delay the ability of people to return to their livelihoods,\u201d explains an Oxfam report on the market-based approach.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cFollowing an emergency, market analysis must at what extent the market can still provide access to essential goods and services for target populations. Market analysis can also map opportunities for reinforcing livelihood opportunities for actors in the market chain,\u201d the report says. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">The contingency planning workshop also featured discussions on disaster preparedness. Department of Civil Protection representative G.R Nyoni while it was the primary responsibility of Government to avert and fight natural disasters and disturbances, all citizens are equally mandated to protect their communities.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cThe National Policy for Civil Protection states that \u2018every citizen of Zimbabwe should assist where possible to avert or limit the effects of a disaster,\u2019\u201d Nyoni emphasised the responsibility. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">\u201cCentral Government initiates disaster preparedness programmes through the relevant sector ministries with local administration taking the responsibilities for implementing and maintaining its effectiveness,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 12.0pt;text-align: justify\"><span lang=\"EN-ZW\">Farmers are currently on the ground to mitigate the impact of El Nino, with some planting anew with every fresh respite. <\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    &lt;![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; \/* Style Definitions *\/  table.MsoNormalTable  {mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";  mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;  mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;  mso-style-noshow:yes;  mso-style-priority:99;  mso-style-qformat:yes;  mso-style-parent:\"\";  mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;  mso-para-margin-top:0in;  mso-para-margin-right:0in;  mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;  mso-para-margin-left:0in;  line-height:115%;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  font-size:11.0pt;  font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\";  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} &lt;![endif]--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Add caption The sustained duration of searing temperatures has levelled a double-barrelled assault on the livelihood of Chiwara villagers in Gutu. Like many smallholder farmers in the district, they can only watch in dismay as yellow cornstalks hunch lifelessly into the ground. It is no easy test for Gutu peasants, and smallholder farmers in Masvingo, particularly Chivi, Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Zaka, whose livelihood \u2013 or rather lifeblood \u2013 is primarily in the annual crop.\u00a0 For some, it is not yet clear how much longer their livestock can hold in there. Hollow bellows from struggling oxen report issues of dust and dying pastures. Cattle are now going for a few bags of maize while at least kicking, lest farmers process the final catastrophe of exchanging a dead beast for maize scarcely the value of $50. Oxfam Zimbabwe director Jan Vossen called on Government and its humanitarian partners to target vulnerable households whose agricultural efforts are handicapped by bad weather drought-prone areas during a contingency planning workshop hosted by the organisation in Masvingo last week. \u201cIf we look at Zimbabwe we see that poverty is persistent and structural. The data from the ZIMVAC study 2015 confirm that structurally in Zimbabwe there are around 700,000 people who are food insecure,\u201d Vossen said. He stressed the need for Government and its partners to provide both structural and developmental support to natural and manmade crises and guarantee food security for the vulnerable. Vossen pointed out the need to utilise platforms such as COP 21, SADC Council of Ministers, AU and the One Program approach to mobilise support for inclusive and sustainable development. Much of the humanitarian support has previously come in form of season-bound food assistance which has not empowered farmers sustainably to thrive in adverse conditions. This cropping season, El Nino has disturbed rainfall distribution, causing many crops to fail mid-season while others are holding on their last life. Smallholder farmers have, in the main, proven incapable of coping given that they rely solely on rain-fed production, with irrigation and knowledge of how to abide climactic adversity sparsely in evidence.\u00a0\u00a0 Vossen said the structural impact of humanitarian interventions has been previously limited and sometimes flawed by the application of the right methods in the wrong context. \u201cIn some cases, it has come with a downside, considering the environmental degradation associated with crop production in dry land areas better suited to livestock and other context-appropriate livelihoods strategies,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea of food self-sufficiency for rural households has spurred some of this, which upon careful consideration of domestic, regional and international market capacity can be seen as neither a realistic nor desirable food security objective,\u201d he added. Vossen observed that the extremely vulnerable need a range of services and support tailored to their own capacities and limitations. \u201cEnsuring that we differentiate between the needs of the extremely vulnerable and what is needed to grow the agricultural sector will make a huge difference in building the resilience of both,\u201d Vossen said. Oxfam and its partners\u2019 field efforts include the Limpopo Water Governance Program which aims to find structural solutions to the water problems in the Limpopo River Catchment Area. Some smallholder farmers in Natural Regions 4 and 5 have made a second go at the season after the failure of the initial maize crop, while others are taking chances with the recent rains and only beginning to plant. Wells have also run dry in many pockets of Masvingo and Matebeleland North and South, forcing villagers to wake up in the deep orange of the morning and travel up to three kilometres to access the few enduring wells and boreholes. Water, now evident for the lifeblood that it is, is never to be thrown out before exhausting every possible chore. Oxfam Zimbabwe humanitarian programmes coordinator Joel Musarurwa said there is need to reduce the impact of adverse climate conditions on vulnerable communities by building on their inside strength. Musarurwa said food security could be ensured through the use of early warning systems, food reserves, social protection systems and community-based resilience. \u201cWe need to link our response with development, risk analysis approaches, livelihood and market analysis and improved contingency planning,\u201d Musarurwa said. Oxfam has forecast that risk from disasters will increase in many countries as more people are exposed to extreme weather conditions, economic shocks on the poorest and new compound risks. The group\u2019s report calls for better understanding and addressing complexity of risks and taking into account the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of communities instead of using one-size-fits-all approaches. Community-based resilience is the ability of a group of people to anticipate, absorb and recover from shocks with little or no external help, despite changes that take place over a longer time period. In Zimbabwe\u2019s context, this involves moving away from reliance on rain-fed production and empowering communities to pursue options that fit their environment. Matebeleland North districts, particularly Lupane and Nkayi, have been partnered by Government and its development partners to set up infrastructure which will help them commercialise livestock production, including feed lots, sale pens and dip tanks. Musarurwa said urged for a market-based approach to humanitarian assistances as shaped by existing market systems. Such an approach aims to promote fair access to markets and to strengthen stakeholder capacity. \u201cDevelopment partners need to progressively become market-based, to better understand market dynamics and work with private sector,\u201d Musarurwa said. He explored the possibility of moving away from special emphasis on food aid to cash-transfer programming. He said this will avert the risk of disrupting existing financial ecosystem of the communities, an approach that equates digging a pit to fill another. \u201cMarkets are essential for providing people access to basic goods and services, for people\u2019s livelihoods \u2013 and for economic development. Disrupting or ignoring markets during an emergency will potentially destroy or delay the ability of people to return to their livelihoods,\u201d explains an Oxfam report on the market-based approach. \u201cFollowing an emergency, market analysis must at what extent the market can still provide access to essential<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Food Sufficiency for Rural Households | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=409\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Food Sufficiency for Rural Households | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Add caption The sustained duration of searing temperatures has levelled a double-barrelled assault on the livelihood of Chiwara villagers in Gutu. Like many smallholder farmers in the district, they can only watch in dismay as yellow cornstalks hunch lifelessly into the ground. It is no easy test for Gutu peasants, and smallholder farmers in Masvingo, particularly Chivi, Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Zaka, whose livelihood \u2013 or rather lifeblood \u2013 is primarily in the annual crop.\u00a0 For some, it is not yet clear how much longer their livestock can hold in there. Hollow bellows from struggling oxen report issues of dust and dying pastures. Cattle are now going for a few bags of maize while at least kicking, lest farmers process the final catastrophe of exchanging a dead beast for maize scarcely the value of $50. Oxfam Zimbabwe director Jan Vossen called on Government and its humanitarian partners to target vulnerable households whose agricultural efforts are handicapped by bad weather drought-prone areas during a contingency planning workshop hosted by the organisation in Masvingo last week. \u201cIf we look at Zimbabwe we see that poverty is persistent and structural. The data from the ZIMVAC study 2015 confirm that structurally in Zimbabwe there are around 700,000 people who are food insecure,\u201d Vossen said. He stressed the need for Government and its partners to provide both structural and developmental support to natural and manmade crises and guarantee food security for the vulnerable. Vossen pointed out the need to utilise platforms such as COP 21, SADC Council of Ministers, AU and the One Program approach to mobilise support for inclusive and sustainable development. Much of the humanitarian support has previously come in form of season-bound food assistance which has not empowered farmers sustainably to thrive in adverse conditions. This cropping season, El Nino has disturbed rainfall distribution, causing many crops to fail mid-season while others are holding on their last life. Smallholder farmers have, in the main, proven incapable of coping given that they rely solely on rain-fed production, with irrigation and knowledge of how to abide climactic adversity sparsely in evidence.\u00a0\u00a0 Vossen said the structural impact of humanitarian interventions has been previously limited and sometimes flawed by the application of the right methods in the wrong context. \u201cIn some cases, it has come with a downside, considering the environmental degradation associated with crop production in dry land areas better suited to livestock and other context-appropriate livelihoods strategies,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea of food self-sufficiency for rural households has spurred some of this, which upon careful consideration of domestic, regional and international market capacity can be seen as neither a realistic nor desirable food security objective,\u201d he added. Vossen observed that the extremely vulnerable need a range of services and support tailored to their own capacities and limitations. \u201cEnsuring that we differentiate between the needs of the extremely vulnerable and what is needed to grow the agricultural sector will make a huge difference in building the resilience of both,\u201d Vossen said. Oxfam and its partners\u2019 field efforts include the Limpopo Water Governance Program which aims to find structural solutions to the water problems in the Limpopo River Catchment Area. Some smallholder farmers in Natural Regions 4 and 5 have made a second go at the season after the failure of the initial maize crop, while others are taking chances with the recent rains and only beginning to plant. Wells have also run dry in many pockets of Masvingo and Matebeleland North and South, forcing villagers to wake up in the deep orange of the morning and travel up to three kilometres to access the few enduring wells and boreholes. Water, now evident for the lifeblood that it is, is never to be thrown out before exhausting every possible chore. Oxfam Zimbabwe humanitarian programmes coordinator Joel Musarurwa said there is need to reduce the impact of adverse climate conditions on vulnerable communities by building on their inside strength. Musarurwa said food security could be ensured through the use of early warning systems, food reserves, social protection systems and community-based resilience. \u201cWe need to link our response with development, risk analysis approaches, livelihood and market analysis and improved contingency planning,\u201d Musarurwa said. Oxfam has forecast that risk from disasters will increase in many countries as more people are exposed to extreme weather conditions, economic shocks on the poorest and new compound risks. The group\u2019s report calls for better understanding and addressing complexity of risks and taking into account the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of communities instead of using one-size-fits-all approaches. Community-based resilience is the ability of a group of people to anticipate, absorb and recover from shocks with little or no external help, despite changes that take place over a longer time period. In Zimbabwe\u2019s context, this involves moving away from reliance on rain-fed production and empowering communities to pursue options that fit their environment. Matebeleland North districts, particularly Lupane and Nkayi, have been partnered by Government and its development partners to set up infrastructure which will help them commercialise livestock production, including feed lots, sale pens and dip tanks. Musarurwa said urged for a market-based approach to humanitarian assistances as shaped by existing market systems. Such an approach aims to promote fair access to markets and to strengthen stakeholder capacity. \u201cDevelopment partners need to progressively become market-based, to better understand market dynamics and work with private sector,\u201d Musarurwa said. He explored the possibility of moving away from special emphasis on food aid to cash-transfer programming. He said this will avert the risk of disrupting existing financial ecosystem of the communities, an approach that equates digging a pit to fill another. \u201cMarkets are essential for providing people access to basic goods and services, for people\u2019s livelihoods \u2013 and for economic development. Disrupting or ignoring markets during an emergency will potentially destroy or delay the ability of people to return to their livelihoods,\u201d explains an Oxfam report on the market-based approach. \u201cFollowing an emergency, market analysis must at what extent the market can still provide access to essential\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=409\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-16T16:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-25T14:54:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/images\/zimbabwe\/201602\/drought-stricken-maize-field-4X3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=409#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=409\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hardsouth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0\"},\"headline\":\"Food Sufficiency for Rural 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\/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Food Sufficiency for Rural Households | Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=409","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Food Sufficiency for Rural Households | Blockspace","og_description":"Add caption The sustained duration of searing temperatures has levelled a double-barrelled assault on the livelihood of Chiwara villagers in Gutu. Like many smallholder farmers in the district, they can only watch in dismay as yellow cornstalks hunch lifelessly into the ground. It is no easy test for Gutu peasants, and smallholder farmers in Masvingo, particularly Chivi, Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Zaka, whose livelihood \u2013 or rather lifeblood \u2013 is primarily in the annual crop.\u00a0 For some, it is not yet clear how much longer their livestock can hold in there. Hollow bellows from struggling oxen report issues of dust and dying pastures. Cattle are now going for a few bags of maize while at least kicking, lest farmers process the final catastrophe of exchanging a dead beast for maize scarcely the value of $50. Oxfam Zimbabwe director Jan Vossen called on Government and its humanitarian partners to target vulnerable households whose agricultural efforts are handicapped by bad weather drought-prone areas during a contingency planning workshop hosted by the organisation in Masvingo last week. \u201cIf we look at Zimbabwe we see that poverty is persistent and structural. The data from the ZIMVAC study 2015 confirm that structurally in Zimbabwe there are around 700,000 people who are food insecure,\u201d Vossen said. He stressed the need for Government and its partners to provide both structural and developmental support to natural and manmade crises and guarantee food security for the vulnerable. Vossen pointed out the need to utilise platforms such as COP 21, SADC Council of Ministers, AU and the One Program approach to mobilise support for inclusive and sustainable development. Much of the humanitarian support has previously come in form of season-bound food assistance which has not empowered farmers sustainably to thrive in adverse conditions. This cropping season, El Nino has disturbed rainfall distribution, causing many crops to fail mid-season while others are holding on their last life. Smallholder farmers have, in the main, proven incapable of coping given that they rely solely on rain-fed production, with irrigation and knowledge of how to abide climactic adversity sparsely in evidence.\u00a0\u00a0 Vossen said the structural impact of humanitarian interventions has been previously limited and sometimes flawed by the application of the right methods in the wrong context. \u201cIn some cases, it has come with a downside, considering the environmental degradation associated with crop production in dry land areas better suited to livestock and other context-appropriate livelihoods strategies,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea of food self-sufficiency for rural households has spurred some of this, which upon careful consideration of domestic, regional and international market capacity can be seen as neither a realistic nor desirable food security objective,\u201d he added. Vossen observed that the extremely vulnerable need a range of services and support tailored to their own capacities and limitations. \u201cEnsuring that we differentiate between the needs of the extremely vulnerable and what is needed to grow the agricultural sector will make a huge difference in building the resilience of both,\u201d Vossen said. Oxfam and its partners\u2019 field efforts include the Limpopo Water Governance Program which aims to find structural solutions to the water problems in the Limpopo River Catchment Area. Some smallholder farmers in Natural Regions 4 and 5 have made a second go at the season after the failure of the initial maize crop, while others are taking chances with the recent rains and only beginning to plant. Wells have also run dry in many pockets of Masvingo and Matebeleland North and South, forcing villagers to wake up in the deep orange of the morning and travel up to three kilometres to access the few enduring wells and boreholes. Water, now evident for the lifeblood that it is, is never to be thrown out before exhausting every possible chore. Oxfam Zimbabwe humanitarian programmes coordinator Joel Musarurwa said there is need to reduce the impact of adverse climate conditions on vulnerable communities by building on their inside strength. Musarurwa said food security could be ensured through the use of early warning systems, food reserves, social protection systems and community-based resilience. \u201cWe need to link our response with development, risk analysis approaches, livelihood and market analysis and improved contingency planning,\u201d Musarurwa said. Oxfam has forecast that risk from disasters will increase in many countries as more people are exposed to extreme weather conditions, economic shocks on the poorest and new compound risks. The group\u2019s report calls for better understanding and addressing complexity of risks and taking into account the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of communities instead of using one-size-fits-all approaches. Community-based resilience is the ability of a group of people to anticipate, absorb and recover from shocks with little or no external help, despite changes that take place over a longer time period. In Zimbabwe\u2019s context, this involves moving away from reliance on rain-fed production and empowering communities to pursue options that fit their environment. Matebeleland North districts, particularly Lupane and Nkayi, have been partnered by Government and its development partners to set up infrastructure which will help them commercialise livestock production, including feed lots, sale pens and dip tanks. Musarurwa said urged for a market-based approach to humanitarian assistances as shaped by existing market systems. Such an approach aims to promote fair access to markets and to strengthen stakeholder capacity. \u201cDevelopment partners need to progressively become market-based, to better understand market dynamics and work with private sector,\u201d Musarurwa said. He explored the possibility of moving away from special emphasis on food aid to cash-transfer programming. He said this will avert the risk of disrupting existing financial ecosystem of the communities, an approach that equates digging a pit to fill another. \u201cMarkets are essential for providing people access to basic goods and services, for people\u2019s livelihoods \u2013 and for economic development. Disrupting or ignoring markets during an emergency will potentially destroy or delay the ability of people to return to their livelihoods,\u201d explains an Oxfam report on the market-based approach. \u201cFollowing an emergency, market analysis must at what extent the market can still provide access to essential","og_url":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=409","og_site_name":"Blockspace","article_published_time":"2016-06-16T16:25:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-25T14:54:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/images\/zimbabwe\/201602\/drought-stricken-maize-field-4X3.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"hardsouth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hardsouth","Est. reading time":"6 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