For the most part of this year, Jane has been worried about her family's condition - the maize crop in her field has been dying. The reality of yet another famine year looms large on her horizon. If the famine really comes to pass, this would be Zambia's second bad season and Jane knows exactly what that means.
When the reserves are used up, she would definitely have to sell her goats and chickens - her most treasured possessions -for a little bit of money to keep her family of eight going. Even wild fruits like mangoes, which grew just about everywhere in her village of Mwense, in northern part of Zambia, failed this year. The rains were just not enough to help anything grow, and whenever it did rain, it did so in excess.
Jane for one has never seen anything like this in all her 42 years; to her, the abrupt weather changes defy explanation. But weather experts - including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - seem to have an idea about what might be causing the weather to behave thus, not only in Zambia but in most countries in Southern Africa and other parts of the world.
The world, says UNFCCC, is getting warmer and over time, major climatic changes will lead to famines and floods. These in turn will leave a hard impact on the health and livelihood of most people - especially in developing countries.
Zambia is one among several Southern African countries experiencing extreme famine. At least 2.5 million people in Zambia alone are expected to face a major shortage of food. The
crop of maize - the staple food in the country - has completely failed this year, forcing the government to call for help from western nations.
The call of help was heard, and for a while, Jane and millions of other Zambians welcomed the news and the impending arrival of 'relief maize'. But their joy was short-lived. Soon, word broke out that the maize being sent to Zambia - through the United Nations and USA - was genetically modified.
Consequently, and fortunately, the government, nongovernmental organisations and all interested parties went through lengthy explanations to educate the people. Much as they were hungry, they said, the genetically modified maize could bring even more harm. In all probability, major consequences would mean damage and destruction of the local breeds of the crop, and an increase in diseases in human beings. And tough though the exercise was, women, men and children realised it would be foolish of them to accept the food and die later, because of it.
John Mwale from 'Save the Breeds', a local NGO, travelled up north to various villages. He talked to women and children, explained the dangers of the promised modified maize, and encouraged them to say no to it. It's not easy, he said, to ask a starving person to resist food because it is harmful.
"But eventually, people reasoned and promised they would not take it," says Mwale. He also spoke of the drought between 1978 and 1980, when the 'borer' worm was introduced into Zambian soil through the yellow maize and cottonseeds that arrived in the form of aid, from the US and Argentina. And of how the good, indigenous white maize died. According to Mwale, villagers in some parts of the country are still struggling - and failing - to grow a local variety of maize. At the Natural Resources Development Centre near Lusaka, scientists are still trying to devise a chemical that would help kill the borer worm, which makes it difficult for local farmers to grow cotton, to this day.
However, the culmination to the efforts of NGOs came when President Levy Mwanawasa announced recently, that the government had turned down an offer of 60,000 tonnes of genetically modified maize. The reason: the government did not want to expose people to various health risks.
Most hands in Zambia clapped when the President said, "Yes, we are hungry and starving, but we shall only accept safe donations."
Meanwhile, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios - based in the US - said after his tour of Zambia recently, that his country would not get rid of the donated maize. Instead, it would re-direct it to other starving countries, if Zambia maintained its stand on not keeping it.
Michael Sata, a political leader of the opposition, hopes the turned-down maize is sent back to its source, and not sold under a different guise by unscrupulous people in the country. He called for honesty and sincerity among the leaders in dealing with this issue.
He also hoped that the leaders would safeguard the integrity of millions of starving Zambians who said 'thank you, but no thanks' to the US offer.
WFS