| Allow cross-border food trade to ease famine: EAC | Send to a friend |
| Friday, 29 July 2011 21:27 |
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The Citizen Bureau Chief Arusha. With the worst hunger looming in the region due to a prolonged drought, the East African Community (EAC) yesterday pleaded to its member states to remove barriers that hinder movement of food across the borders in order to reach critically affected areas.It has also appealed for humanitarian assistance from outside the region in a bid to avert further suffering in the affected communities. “The situation is critical and we have to remove barriers to facilitate movement of food to the badly hit areas,” said EAC director of Productive and Social Services, Dr Nyamajeje Weggoro, in a press conference. He said he was aware that Tanzania had imposed food-export ban in the wake of the crisis, but expressed hope that the country’s leaders would cooperate with fellow member states to alleviate suffering in the region, “in the spirit of East African Cooperation”. But he noted that the situation in Tanzania itself had not been good either, especially in the northern areas bordering Kenya, partly due to food smuggling. The official played down assertions that Tanzania was going against the spirit of EA cooperation by denying its drought-affected neighbours access to its stocks. “Tanzania, like other countries in EAC, is a sovereign state and has its own mechanism of addressing the food crisis,” he said, noting also that the removal of non-trade barriers (NTBs) was a process that needed change and harmonisation of legal frameworks. In June, the minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Prof Jumanne Maghembe announced that the government had banned export of food stocks, especially maize, to the neighbouring countries to avert hunger at home. He told Parliament in Dodoma that the country had a shortfall of 413,740 tonnes of grains during the 2010/2011 farming season. Statistics from the ministry indicate that about 7.2 million tonnes of cereals, notably maize and rice, were consumed annually in the country, and that 42 districts in 16 regions were experiencing food shortage. The minister said the food export ban was to remain in force for six months, during which a total of 115,000 tonnes of cereals in the National Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) was to be transferred from the southern regions to drought-hit areas in the northern and central regions. For his part, the EAC official said the famine situation in northern Kenya was very much worrying, and the EAC secretariat was appealing for humanitarian assistance from local and international stakeholders “to respond and avert further suffering of the affected communities”. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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Why should Tanzania care about your own problem? Grow up Kenya
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