Hunger by Choice? Rethinking Food Security Strategies

Food insecurity is a global threat with devastating effects, particularly in ‘developing’ countries. This threat is worsened by a parochial perspective in most of southern Africa that associates food security with the major staple crop maize. This bias is witnessed in the amount of land, investments, research, and marketing allocated to maize, in comparison to traditional crops such as millet, rapoko and sorghum. However, increased investments in agriculture, particularly maize production has failed to translate to increased production of the crop, particularly in Zimbabwe. The vagaries of climate-change manifested through droughts, coupled with man-made policy disasters are evidence enough to factor diversified production systems to include traditional crops into the food security basket.

Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has experienced more than a dozen drought periods, which translates into multi-million dollar food imports. To feed the growing number of food insecure people, the solution could be in the shunned small grains, whose resilience in harsh conditions compared to maize, calls for urgent transformation and orchestration of the food security basket. Through renewed focus on traditional crops, Zimbabwe and other countries in east and southern African could attain food secure status and ensure that food as a human right is available to all.