Africa exposed to unsafe food, says President Mugabe

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Herald Reporter

FOOD donations from developed countries and the influx of new
foods from new technologies expose Africa to unsafe food
while crippling commitment to developing agriculture on the
continent, President Mugabe has said.

He was addressing the joint Food Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) regional conference
on food safety for Africa in Harare yesterday.

"Indeed, the so called food aid gestures have, to a large
extent, crippled the commitment and seriousness that should
attend agricultural development on the continent.

"We need to rethink on matters of agriculture, especially
given the fact that much of our economic activity revolves
around it," said the President.

Cde Mugabe said everybody needs food and it was incumbent
upon the people to produce it and have the necessary
resources such as land and inputs.

All the food, said the President, should be safe for human
consumption adding that where food was imported, the
receiving governments had to ensure its safety.

Weak food safety control systems, coupled with unpredictable
droughts, had impacted negatively on regional food security
resulting in a growing prevalence of food-borne diseases.

HIV and Aids, unregulated informal food vending and the
influx of new foods from new technologies and the dumping of
other foods from developed countries under the guise of food
aid worsened the challenges.

Cde Mugabe said Zimbabwe’s response to food safety and
security was the land reform programme, which created a wider
base of farmers in the country.

"Zimbabwe’s much-vilified land reform programme is our
response to the challenge of empowering more of our people
and therefore creating a wider base of farmers in the
country."

He said the objective of the land redistribution programme
was never to dispossess anyone.

"Rather its objective was to redress the fact of colonial
injustice, empower the majority of our people and proceed to
improve the agricultural sector performance by increasing the
numbers of our farmers.

"In our fight for freedom and independence, one of the
pillars of the struggle was the land grievance. Land, land,
land to the people which means food, food, food to the
people," he said.

Cde Mugabe said land reform had taught the country important
lessons about food security.

Chief among the lessons was engaging more scientific methods
to ensure greater productivity for the resettled farmers.

Successive droughts have also raised a need to embark on
systematic irrigation development.

He said African countries should regulate informal food
vending.

Livelihoods in most African countries depend on agriculture
and trade in agro-based products but global trade has greatly
disadvantaged Africa because the World Trade Organisation
rules have created unscrupulous competition and bad practices
in the selling and marketing of food products.

The President pledged Zimbabwe’s commitment towards ensuring
food security and safety.

Harare’s commitment was judged by its active participation in
and contribution to organs of the FAO and WHO such as the
Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organisation for
Animal Health and International Plant Protection Commission.

Cde Mugabe commended the support rendered to the country in
the establishment of the Zimbabwe Food Safety Control
Authority by FAO and WHO and the United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation.

He said deliberations of the conference should enable the
countries to have workable, practical and realistic actions
for improving the safety of food consumed on the continent.

The conference is being held at the time the developing
world, particularly those in Africa, were facing enormous
challenges in the areas of food safety and security while
under threat from food borne diseases.

WHO director of healthy environments and sustainable
development Dr Chris Ngenda Mwikisa said food borne diseases
were an economic burden often leading to death and loss of
funds attending to the illnesses.

He said the fact that Africa imports about 60 percent of its
food needs makes it very difficult for authorities to monitor
all the food imports.

He said food had now become a public health issue.

"Making food safe will not only protect the health of the
consumer but will also produce a healthy work force and
increase food exports. It will thus contribute significantly
to activities aimed at poverty alleviation as well as
reducing child mortality," said Dr Mwikisa.

FAO assistant director general for economic and social
department Mr Hartwig de Haen said increasing food security
and safety helps to reduce food losses.

"Greater food safety is important for both exports and
imports. For example, Kenya was able to increase its exports
of Nile perch to the EU more than five-fold, by implementing
a hazard analysis critical control point system to improve
the hygiene of fish processing," he said.

The conference ends on Thursday and is expected to come up
with resolutions on enhancing food safety and security in
Africa.