Coronavirus hits farmers

According to the WFP, above-emergency levels of malnutrition call for blanket feeding, which means providing enriched foods to all children aged under five and pregnant women and new mothers in a specific area whether or not they are diagnosed with malnutrition. Blanket supplementary feeding helps reduce levels of malnutrition and the risk of deaths among young children.

Hillary Onek, the Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said while releasing the results of the analysis that the government is committed to ensuring food and nutrition security and well-being for all people in Uganda, including those in urban areas.

“With these new findings, we now know, reliably, who the most food-insecure people are in Uganda, where they are and what we can do to save lives and preserve livelihoods. Such knowledge is critical before we take any decisions,” Onek said.

“We thank our partners for working with us to come up with this very important analysis. We now must continue to work together to find solutions to the issues raised in the study.”

The IPC attributed the high levels of food insecurity in refugee hosting districts and Karamoja to WFP’s ration cuts for refugees, the lockdown, floods and subsequent food losses, animal and human diseases, and insecurity in some parts of Karamoja and reduced remittances as key contributors to the situation.

“Ration cuts for refugees will remain in place until we secure sufficient funding. To be able to provide full rations for refugees in the settlements until the end of 2020, WFP needs nearly US$15.3 million immediately,” said WFP Uganda Country Director, Mr El-Khidir Daloum.

 In response, on Oct.14, the Japanese government contributed US$ 600000 (Approx. Shs 2.2bn) to help WFP provide 244 metric tonnes of enriched foods to 26,000 children aged below five, pregnant women and new mothers in the worst-hit Moroto and Napak Districts for at least three months to stop overall malnutrition levels increasing.

“This is a very timely and important contribution,” said WFP Country Director El-Khidir Daloum. “Japan has proved its commitment to supporting Uganda by addressing hunger at critical times through WFP and has played its part in both saving and improving people’s lives.”

 FAO’s Deputy Representative in Uganda, Priya Gujadhur noted that as part of the UN Uganda’s Emergency Appeal launched earlier this year, FAO has appealed for US$ 7.8 million (Approx. Shs 29bn) for food security, nutrition and livelihoods interventions.

“This will allow FAO to provide agricultural livelihood support and training in climate smart agricultural practices to help up to 10,000 of the most vulnerable households produce for their own consumption and diversify income sources through value chain development, thereby strengthening their resilience,” she said.

Experts in the agriculture sector say even with coming harvests this year, it is expected households will continue to struggle with food shortages partly because of lost incomes during the lockdown. Within the refugee settlements, households are expected to remain at crisis level at best.

Qu Dongyu, the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only taken a toll on human lives and health, it also threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the world.

“Food security, until recently a rather foreign concept to many living in well-to-do countries, would suddenly grab news headlines around the globe and claim the agenda at many high-level events,” he said.

“Even before COVID-19 hit, nearly 700 million people were undernourished. The economic disruption linked to the pandemic may add another 130 million or so to these.”

“In the early days of the pandemic, when shelves went empty; when fruit-pickers went missing; when markets fell silent, we realised that we were taking these services, and the people that provide them, for granted. The moral imperative to feed the world – safely, durably, with dignity for all – is as urgent now as it was after the War,” he said.

 Meanwhile, Gilbert Houngbo, President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) noted that food supply in several countries at risk if countries do not start prioritizing rural women during this pandemic.

“It is unacceptable that rural women, who play such a vital role in growing our food and building thriving economies, are at greatest risk during the pandemic,” said Houngbo while marking the International Day of Rural Women.

“Our global resilience depends on governments paying greater attention to the disproportionate socio-economic impacts on rural women and stepping up their investments to protect them.”

There are about 1.7 billion women and girls living in rural areas, representing more than one-fifth of all people in the world.

Rural women make up 43% of the agricultural work force in developing countries, and are responsible for much of the world’s food production.  However they have less access than men to technologies, markets, financial assets and agricultural resources, making them far more vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19.

Restrictions on movement have limited the ability of rural producers to grow and sell their produce. Rural women, who are often employed informally with no social protection, have faced higher job loss than men, whilst also experiencing an increase in unpaid domestic workloads including caring for sick family members and children not in school.

“Rural women – the people who have the greatest responsibility for feeding and raising the next generation – have been neglected through this crisis,” said Houngbo. “It is time to elevate the important contribution they make to their families, communities and the economies of their nations, and ensure that they are supported and protected through this unprecedented time.”

Houngbo said that while much progress has been made in the 25 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which provided a framework for addressing women’s empowerment, achieving gender equality in rural areas has been challenging.

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