Front PageWeekend Investigate

The downfall of ‘A Cow, A Family’

Political short-termism killed a national livestock initiative at a time sustained malnutrition, stunting and poverty is disadvantaging Malawians. JAMES CHAVULA writes.

It was the time of political speeches, it was the time of listening, it was the age of promises, it was the age of lies, it was an epoch of power scramble, it was an epoch of power loss.

Former president Joyce Banda went all over the country distributing goats and cattle in the run up to last year’s presidential elections
Former president Joyce Banda went all over the country distributing goats and cattle in the run up to
last year’s presidential elections

If Charles Dickens had to rewrite his A Tale of Two Cities, it would still have read: “It was a season of light, it was a season of darkness, it was a spring of hope, it was a winter of despair.”

Many households were promised cows and goats, many did not get them. Precisely, this was an electoral campaign like any other—a period that candidates wanted votes and insisted on being received in a superlative way.

Except agriculture was still a tale of two worlds in one—the growing of crops and rearing of animals for human kind’s wellbeing. In this Dickensian affair, the noisier half of the country’s largest economic activity was in the wrong hands and the Ministry of Agriculture does not seem to know what happened with a one-time Presidential Initiative for Hunger and Poverty Reduction (PIHPR) which encompassed ‘A Cow, A Family’.

The initiative was popularised by the mewing of cows and bleating goats at political rallies where former president Joyce Banda promised to scale up livestock to every home while asking for people’s votes.

In her talk, this was not supposed to be a presidential campaign tool.

Instead, she envisaged the pass-on programme improving access to milk and meat for improved nutrition of the nation; dung manure for better crop harvests in fields of the poor farmers hit by soaring prices of chemical fertiliser and devastating effects of climate change; and better income to the beholders.

But the determination to harness livestock for improved livelihoods is going up in smoke on the altar of party politics.

When asked about progress and lessons so far, Minister of Agriculture and Water Development Allan Chiyembekeza said: “I don’t know anything.”

But agriculture also includes animal husbandry?

“Ask the experts.”

Wasn’t PIHPR a national initiative?

“I cannot say anything about that. When I was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, I found nothing like that at the ministry,” said Chiyembekeza.

Only strangers at his side of Capital Hill did not hear about the famous ‘A Cow, A Family Initiative” that was supposed to benefit his ministry. Not long ago, its workforce—from ministers to district agricultural development officers and extension staff—were in the news and on the ground making it happen.

But Chiyembekeza made a stunning revelation: “My office knows nothing about it. I have no report in my books.”

 

OPC takeover

Actually, the minister refused to “be quizzed about it”, saying it could be one of a number of agricultural programmes that were implemented outside the Ministry of Agriculture.

“There was the Presidential Initiative on Hunger, the so-called Filp [Farm Input Loan Programme]. Those initiatives were under the Office of the President and Cabinet, not the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said, curtailing the interview by referring the matter to the director of livestock or the ministry’s spokesperson.

Two weeks earlier, Weekend Nation had engaged public relations officer Hamilton Chimala who promised to reply after consulting the director.

He did, except the answer was the same: “This may best be answered by the OPC.”

The politics that eclipses a public programme to improve the population of cows and goats among the poor, the 60 in every 100 Malawians, has been thickening from the start.

Throughout, it points to graver disconnection in how the country handles its livestock agenda at a time crop husbandry is getting a lions’ share of national resources, thanks, in no small measure, to the K41 billion Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp).

But Chiyembekeza was only saying: “I cannot discuss an OPC issue on phone.”

Just on April 16, however, he was candid about both Filp and A Cow, A Family.

In a meeting with agricultural workers from Chitipa and Karonga at St Mary’s Hall in Karonga, he did not only blast them for late-coming, he also explained the discontinuation of Filp, saying: “Government is reviewing the design of the programme. It was not implemented according to plan, it coincided with elections and was clearly turned into a campaign tool.”

However, the minister said as much when he returned to Lupembe in Karonga to witness initial recipients of goats pass on the kids to have-nots on a waiting list.

With tales of how even manure is changing lives, Chiyembekeza said: “Government is committed to scaling up livestock and the programme will continue. Some thought this is a campaign tool, but it is actually a national initiative.”

The rural Malawians had heard as much in March 2014 when PIHPR deputy director Dr Susan Chikagwa-Malunga visited remote parts of the Northern Region.

In Chitipa, village heads praised the livestock initiative intervention, saying villages and households who had no chickens and pigeons were able to acquire goats and cattle.

It reverberated at Mpamba, Nkhata Bay, where almost five families who had received cows had to do with one bull situated in the hills of Mzenga, almost 40km away.

It reflected the feelings of Lupembe residents who, admittedly, could not wait to see the president come to officially share the animals.

Most importantly, Chikagwa-Malunga lifted a lid on how taxpayers’ or donor money was funding the distribution of animals at political rallies where the former president was principally asking for votes.

“This is not a partisan initiative, but a fully government-sponsored programme to fast-track the ownership of livestock across the country. This is why we work hand-in-hand with traditional leaders to identify vulnerable houses which do not have livestock but have the ability to look after them,” she said.

By that time, she said, the President had circulated 22 000 goats under her small stock programme and 621 cattle under A Cow, A Family Initiative with some of them being imported.

This did not only mirror what she termed government’s resolve to distribute no less than one million cows by 2017, a sign that the programme was planned to continue.

It also confirmed what the civil society had always feared—the president’s involvement made it politically biased and mostly costly than the animals being distributed.

Then, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) national coordinator Chris Chisoni urged against a new political order to end abuse of State resources for political gain.

In an interview, Chisoni said: “Malawians are being told that some of these things are coming from the president’s goodwill or well-wishers. If it is true that government is paying the cost of the livestock programme, then it’s a shame that ruling parties continue to use state resources to canvass for votes.”

Equally worrisome is the disconnection between the agricultural ministry and activities it is supposed to regulate.

 

Beyond rhetoric

“Livestock is taking an upward trend in Malawi,” says Chimala.

This could be populist rhetoric that Malawians have been hearing for decades.

Founding president Kamuzu Banda was equally optimistic in 1992 when he affirmed how the country’s agricultural policy tilts towards food and cash crops.

He bragged: “Malawi is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. It is a star performer. The IMF and World Bank are full of praise. This makes me very happy. People are rich in Malawi, not the ministers but the ordinary people in the villages who are growing maize and tobacco and groundnuts…”

The first part has been clichéd by nearly all predecessors of Kamuzu since his downfall in 1994, yet Malawi remains one of the hardest hit countries in the world when it comes to malnutrition and poor growth—with slightly less than half of the population found stunting during the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey.

Nutritionists, including Principal Secretary Erica Maganga, say livestock needs to be part of six-part diversified diets necessary for the desired shift from what Blessings Muwalo termed a national tragedy.

Similarly, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, which works with government to achieve sustainable food security, says good policies can also help eliminate the silent crises of malnutrition and stunting.

This year, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that the country, with an estimated population of 16.3 million people, presently has about 1.4 million cattle, 6.5 million goats, 300 000 sheep, 3.6 million pigs and 78 million poultry.

“Almost 80 percent of smallholder farmers own livestock, over 90 percent of which are from indigenous breeds,” says Chimala when asked about animal husbandry.

Beside inadequate coordination and networking, the livestock subsector, which accounts for 11 percent to the GDP, faces erratic availability of breeding stock and inadequate regulation.

Other challenges include shortage of funding and field staff, something a community change agent cited as a major drawback and sign of livestock on the wane.

 

Call for policy shift

Chimwemwe Soko works for Find Your Feet (FYF) which runs a neutral and transparent lookalike of the government livestock pass-on programme. In Mzenga, the intervention, conceived to empower the rural poor economically and nutritionally, has offered 2 380 families access to cattle, goats, pigs and chicken.

“When we went to Mzenga two years ago, only 24 out of 100 families had animals. The gap clearly shows how the country is investing more in crops not animals. Consequently, we have vast areas without animal health assistants,” said Soko.

To close the gap, FYF trained a local citizen, Amon Banda, as a community animal worker, with community members contributing nearly K200 a month to replenish his kit.

However, the locals want government to reopen dip tanks which used to be epicentres of animal disease control and marketing in remote areas.

“Nkhata Bay could be the worst hit by stunting because most of us lack meat in our diets. Villagers and decision makers must change their mindset,” says village head Yehama of Mzenga.

He aptly likens the ongoing agricultural policy to a prevailing culture of eating “a mountain of nsima”—a corn meal—with “one or two pieces of meat and a cup of water”. Nutritionists say the prevalent energy-giving meal must be supplemented with a variety of foods, including legumes, vegetables, fruits and animal source proteins.

That is why agriculture is a Dickensian tale of crops as much as animals.

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One Comment

  1. That a whole head of state would personally be distributing goats and cows was a fucked up idea by a profoundly daft president.

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