Mens titusinder af småbønder må affinde sig med dårligt udbytte og manglende mad på bordet, fordi de ikke har råd til såsæd og kunstgødning, går regeringen i kongedømmet Swaziland i det sydlige Afrika utraditionelt til værks.
MBABANE, 20 March 2013 (IRIN): Swaziland’s government has sold maize donated by the Japanese government to feed hungry Swazis for three million US dollar and deposited the money in the Central Bank of Swaziland.
The nearly 12.000 metric tons of donated maize was sold by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development in 2011, but the sale was not made public until an item about the transaction appeared in a performance report the ministry presented to the Swaziland Parliament for review last week.
Swaziland, situated between South Africa and Mozambique, has not produced enough food to feed itself since the 1970s.
It depends on international food aid to bridge a gap that varies from year to year, ranging from two-thirds of the tiny country’s 1,2 million people in 2007 to about one-tenth of the population this year, after a better than average rainfall, according to the World Food Programme.
Unanswered questions
The majority of Swazis reside on communal Swazi Nation Land, under the authority of chiefs appointed by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Lacking title deeds (skøder) to their ancestral farms, they are unable to secure bank loans to invest in irrigation equipment or farming machinery, relying instead on rainfall to water their crops. However, Swaziland’s climate is becoming increasingly arid (tørt) and agricultural inputs are growing increasingly unaffordable.
Bertram Stewart, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development’s principal secretary, acknowledged the sale of the food aid to Swazi media, and said it was not the first time this had been done.
According to Stewart, the Japanese government was informed that the maize donation would be sold and that the money would be used to purchase farming inputs for subsistence farmers, but the Japanese government has yet to confirm this assertion (påstand).
In fact, government-funded farming inputs were scaled back during the past cropping season, with the Ministry of Agriculture citing a lack of funds.
Members of parliament (MPs) have asked the economic planning minister, Prince Hlangusemphi Dlamini, for an explanation as to why food donations intended for the poor and hungry were being diverted for other uses.
But Dlamini, who was appointed to the ministerial position by his brother, the king, has yet to respond.
MPs also pointed out that the government has 50 million dollar in unused funds that could be used to purchase food aid or to implement programmes recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost food production.
Economic decline
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97684/Swazi-government-sells-food-aid
