World Food Shortage?

Stored Maize and Beans


Nursery workers with filled bags


Ngabobo distribution


Grateful kids at Ntuwe Primary School


Happy students at Valeska Primary School


Politicians have been meeting recently to discuss pending severe world food shortages. Sometimes there are political answers, sometimes not, but I have some experience in the field, and of course an opinion. If can lobby politicians maybe you can too.
The following is an event that happened and my personal reaction to it. The memory of it will linger in my mind.

Hunger in Meru

The Honorable Bishop of Meru, Paulo Akyoo a man I have the greatest respect for, called me into his office.

'There was a woman at Kolila village,' he told me, 'who's children came home from school saying that they were very hungry! The woman made a fire and put some stones in a pot of water to boil. She then went into her house and hung herself. She could not bear to see her children starve!

Mzee, [I was often called that] you are out in the field most of the time, can you collect some information and write a report on the issue of hunger?'

I felt a deal of shame because sure, I was out in the field and regularly working with school kids and thought I was close to them; yet I did not notice that they were indeed starving!

I did a sample of the schools, much the way I was taught to sample a crop of trees - random selection and taking accurate notes.

I sampled 20 of the schools I worked with, 35 pupils from each school in a range of ages.

Quickly I found that the school rolls were down by 20% because the younger children did not have the strength to walk to the school. Some of them had a seven kilometer trek. The teachers told me that kids were falling over at school through lack of stamina!

Each child sat beside me in the cab of my truck as I interviewed them. I noticed their hair had become ginger, their skin dry and cracked and some had developed the pot belly of malnutrition!

Tears still come to my eyes remembering their plaintive replies.

'Did you have breakfast this morning?' - 'Hapana (No).'

'Did you have breakfast yesterday?' - 'Hapana.'

'When did you last have breakfast?' - 'Siku nyingi! (Many days).'

I found that on average the kids were going 3 days without food, which means some went without for 5 days or more! The average meal was a mashed banana mixed in hot water with the ration being half a glass per child - that is every 3 days! Nothing else.

There were many tragic stories; parents would go to relatives in other areas to beg for assistance, leaving the oldest child to look after their younger siblings during the crisis.

A Maasai boy cried as he told me that his family had sold their last goat and he asked me what next they could do - he feared they would die.

All told of the pain associated with an empty stomach. And of course, the inference of my interview meant to them that I was going to help!

 I was numbed at the final school, Kisimiri, which was severely effected by the drought. The short rains often fail there these days and subsistence farming is very difficult.

I asked the Head Teacher to keep 35 students back for me to interview, because I before I interviewed then I had a pre-planned  seminar to conduct at the village office. 'No problem, the students will come to the office.' he said. I did not want that, I had the Landrover so was more mobile but sometimes you just can't argue!

In fact the children were made to run to the office - 4km on empty stomachs!

After the interviews, as we prepared to leave, the village chairman told us we could not leave without 'something' and ushered us inside.

There was an an oval table laden with food! But after those interviews, eating was the last thing on my mind! Politely, I spooned a small portion of rice on to my plate. The chairman elbowed me 'Mwaga tu!' He meant that I should just spill a large helping on my plate!.

Those kids were still waiting around outside - I had told them that I would ferry them home!

Back home I sat on the doorstep and told Mags about the days events -  I wept for those kids!

I wrote my report but agencies were not prepared to fund food aid because the Tanzanian government were not prepared to admit that there was a food crisis! I was determined I going to do something and told the Bishop that the church should lobby government!

Tanzania Breweries provided me with one tonne of corn starch which I distributed among the worst effected of the schools. This provided one meal of uji, a thin porridge, per child. The breweries offered me all the spent grain they produced but despite requests from scientists in NZ there was no way it could be effectively utilised. Spent grain can not be easily digested. I wanted the Agency to put their weight behind my request but they did not get the concept of spent grain.

One world-wide aid agency (I won't name) took my report and actually raised money in NZ, but we saw none of it! They told me that they had used it, and our methods, in another area, also badly effected. I have no way of knowing the truth of this, but it activated my skeptic button!

Through personal contacts, MFAT (NZ) provided $10 000 from its emergency relief fund, which allowed me to to utilise our friendship with Mama Lillian, who had a business in Arusha buying and selling maize and beans, sold me maize and beans at cost price and as a contribution towards the cause, she paid the freight to our house at Makumira.

At this time I must acknowledge the assistance of my good friend and dedicated co-worker Mzee Loti Nnko. He helped me negotiate the pitfalls for us to set the style of delivering the food aid. The village authorities, of course wanted to take control of the food which in some cases would mean it was sold and nepotism would likely become involved.

Because polygamy existed in some of the villages, feeding on a family basis was not entirely proper, so we would ask the oldest pupil from 'behind one door' to step forward and the siblings of that child line up behind. This scheme for allocation worked well.

I begged and sometimes bought plastic bags for the food and my nursery staff helped measure out each amount of food to be supplied, all carefully weighed and counted out. These were loaded into my truck and Loti and I delivered to the schools/villages. This way we fed the students of the fourteen worst effected primary schools.

The Ngarenanyuki trip was longer so I hired a lorry to help, and I remember one small child who could not understand why he didn't qualify for food. I was able to gather a bagful of spilt maize and beans from the floor of the truck and that boy happily headed home.

This food aid came at the right time because the new crops were just about to to be able to be harvested and the lean times coming to an end.

There is no doubt that while our actions were by no means an answer, we identified with the people and responded how we could.
All the schools knew that the aid came from New Zealand.

A Solution

Having lived in Tanzania for 7 years - in the villages and with the people, I have seen and helped with a good number of maize crops.

First though, maize is the staple diet of many African nations. The same food - ugali in Tanzania, sudsa in Zimbabwe is used to make a maize porridge.

Each year, new seed has to be purchased - I won't name the company, but it is a large American company that has the monopoly. The maize has been bred so keeping seed does not produce a viable crop the next season.

Then we have the maize plant itself - perhaps growing to 1.5 metres tall. Again it has been bred to have just one cob of maize per plant! So it stands to reason, if maize can be grown to produce two cobs you have effectively doubled production with no extra work/cost to the farmers.

We in the Forestry industry, especially in New Zealand, have been selectively growing Radiata Pine for years and have very different trees now to those at Monterey where initial seed came from.

I am sure maize can be bred so that the populations of Africa can double production with ease, and I question why the seed producers have not already done so!

Some years, crops are devastated by Army Worm (a caterpillar). I don't know if selective breeding can help here, but biological control or, (may I swear) GM maize produced so it is not susceptible to the pest.