The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $1.4 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme to reduce malnutrition among the most vulnerable households in Zambia.
The project, ‘Mitigating Impacts of Covid-19 on Household Food Security Project’, aims to create about 150 permanent skilled or semi-skilled positions and 40 part-time unskilled jobs in crop, livestock and fisheries value chains.
Development Diaries gathered that the project also aims to supply inputs for crops, livestock and aquaculture enterprises to promote good agricultural practices and increase food production.
A combination of drought and communities’ declining resilience had left an estimated 2.3 million people facing severe acute food insecurity in the country in 2019.
It was learnt that some families in the worst-affected areas had to resort to eating wild fruits and roots, a coping mechanism that exposed them to poisonous species.
‘The agriculture sector is an important source of livelihoods, employment and GDP in Zambia. Increased food supply resulting from additional grant funds will lead to more jobs, improved quality of life, and reduction of malnutrition in many impacted communities’, AfDB Director of Agriculture and Agro-industry, Martin Fregene, said in a statement.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Zambia has implemented bold measures to protect the health and economic well-being of its citizens.
These steps included a nationwide programme to scale up agricultural diversification.
‘The facility will consolidate the bank’s support for Zambia’s economic diversification and impact mitigation against Covid-19’, the statement also quoted AfDB’s Country Manager in Zambia, Mary Monyau, as saying.
The project provides supplementary funds to the ongoing Agriculture Productivity and Market Enhancement Project, a $32 million grant-funded initiative also from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme, which has been managed by the bank in the Sinazongwe, Gwembe, Chongwe, Rufunsa, Serenje and Chitambo districts of Zambia over the past five years.
Administrators of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme said that the six districts were selected based on poverty levels, food insecurity and malnutrition prevalence.
With this funding and programme, these districts have the potential for economic growth, and to promote crop diversification.
Some 5,000 people, including 3,750 women and 1,000 youths, will benefit. Some 5,000 people will also benefit indirectly along the commodity value chains, according to the bank.
The Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme was established as a response to the 2008/09 world food price crisis, following a commitment by the Group of Eight nations (G8) in September 2009 to mobilise up to $20 billion for agricultural development and food security.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: Rod Waddington
