Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Madagascar have notably reduced undernourishment while several other sub-Saharan Africa countries experienced a rise between 2009-2011 and 2014-2016, a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation regional overview of food security said.
The report, launched last week said that many countries in the region experiences reduction in food production, pushing up food prices due to the effects of El Niño.
According to the report, the Government of Rwanda has put in place different policies that are expected to ensure food security.
These include the campaign, “Our milk, our health and our future,” launched in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of drinking milk, local online website, the New Times reports.
“Rwanda has put in place different initiatives, including one cow per family to increase milk production, improve nutrition and reduce poverty. These efforts helped increase milk production in Rwanda from 50, 000 metric tonnes in 2,000 to over 710, and 000 metric tonnes in 2016. Additionally, the “One Cup of Milk per Child” programme, initiated in 2010, currently reaches 85,000 children,” the report says.
In February, the Government committed to scale up irrigation initiatives to cope with climate change effects that have adversely affected agricultural production over the last few years.
According to the report, since 2014, the Rwanda government has been supporting farmers with small-scale irrigation facilities, subsidised by up to 50 per cent of the total cost.
The report further stated that the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has increased mainly due to the impact of conflict and climate change.
The prevalence of chronic undernourishment appears to have risen from 20.8 to 22.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016, the report said.
The FAO assistant director-general and regional representative for Africa, Bukar Tijani said that the number of undernourished people rose from 200 to 224 million, accounting for 25 per cent of the 815 million people undernourished in the world in 2016.
