Zambia: Kalomo District Commissioner Joshua Sikaduli has called on authorities to provide hunger affected households get access to food. He urged District Food Security Task Force Committee to ensure that families can get food with the help of government interventions.
The country has been struggling with the food shortage crisis as a result of the drought conditions in several parts of the country. Sikaduli says Kalomo has the highest number of rural households in need of food in Southern Province.
In line with this, tshe district should have a dedicated team to utilize the mechanisms that the government has devised to assist the hunger affected families. He was speaking at a food security task force review meeting to chart the way forward.
They discussed how this month’s 300 metric tonnes allocation of relief food will be distributed to the established 128 satellite centres. The relief food is being distributed among the people under the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU).
In June, the DMMU committee distributed 200 metric tonnes of relief food to households in all the 20 wards of Kalomo. The distribution of food was assisted by the engaged project implementing partner, the Environmental Conservation Trust (ECT).
The Southern Province Food Security Task Committee has projected a total of 319,854 rural households who are supposed to be provided with 50 kilograms bags of maize grain per month from now up to April next year through the devised mechanisms.
Out of the 15 districts in the province, Kalomo is the highest with 41,580 rural households in need of food with Siavonga having the least at 8,112 households.
Government has put in place measures and modalities to improve the accessibility of deserving households to be provided with food during the disaster period through interventions.
The interventions include the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) community sales and DMMU relief food distribution which comprises food for work and for the vulnerable component.
Others are the provision of finances through the Social Cash Transfer (SCT) and the newly introduced emergency drought relief component where 10,196 beneficiaries in Kalomo, have been enlisted and are expected to receive their K400 monthly from now up to April next year, to cushion the impact of the last farming season’s drought shocks.