World commemorates food security day as Zim battles to feed 7.7 million people
Staff Writer
THE United Nations member states Sunday, commemorated the second World Food Safety Day at a time the Zimbabwe government and its development partners are battling to feed 7.7 million food insecure nationals after two successive droughts that hit the Southern Africa country.
The second WFSD on June 7 2020 aims to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
Following the success of the first celebration in 2019, this year again WFSD reinforces the call to strengthen commitment to scale up food safety made by the Addis Ababa Conference and the Geneva Forum in 2019 under the umbrella of “The Future of Food Safety”.
WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to facilitate Member States efforts to celebrate the World Food Safety Day.
Under the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business”, the action oriented campaign will promote global food safety awareness and call upon countries and decision makers, the private sector, civil society, UN organizations and the general public to take action.
Once seen as the breadbasket of Africa – is in the grip of what experts describe as “man-made starvation”, the World Food Program spokesperson Bettina Luescher said that almost $300 million was needed urgently to supply some 240,000 tonnes of aid for Zimbabwe.
“A climate disaster” and “economic meltdown” were to blame for the ongoing crisis, she explained, with normal rainfall recorded in just one of the last five growing seasons.
The increasingly unreliable rainy season affects subsistence farmers in particular as they grow maize – a very water-intensive crop, and many of these farmers are still recovering from the major 2014-16 El Nino-induced drought.
The challenges have further been worsened by a weakening currency which continues to devalue against the US$ further eroding workers salaries and fueling urban poverty.
