World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day (WAD). There isn't much going on because of the day; pulling people out of church (or bed) for the standard get-your-themed-Tshirts-on-and-march-behind-a-banner parades to celebrate, much like International Women's Day, Labour Day, Independence Day, Farmers' Day, etc., would go over like a fart said church. 

I didn't do much for the day; got up early, ran, went to church (whenever I'm in Lusaka on a Sunday, I try to attend the Dutch Reformed in Kabulonga), went shopping for some "luxury" items: four jars of chili pickle, two liters of light soy sauce, and 250g of Kasama coffee. Not to hard to spin my record when it comes to food, as long as there's enough. Came back, did a weightless workout, read the Sunday Post, the Bulletin & Record magazine, light lunch, and some online reading for tomorrow's meeting in Johannesburg.

HIV/AIDS does after awhile become part of the assumed landscape; like all things, the biggest curse the efforts facing the disease have is familiarity. New infections are supposedly at an ebb tide, the number infected (as a percentage) is falling, male circumcision is increasing, condom availability has gone up and ART is widely available. Contrasted with 2004 when I first arrived, and the change is startling; people are now more willing to admit been HIV+ (testing positive) for the disease, messages regarding prevention are a part (however small) of the social discourse, etc. All this good news causes people to relax somewhat; that's partly why we did a rural awareness campaign for the past week and a half leading up to WAD. We're integrating the message into our Conservation Agriculture project as well; however, it's less activism than design, making sure that their are methods that are HIV+ persons-friendly, i.e. low labor and big return.

On the farming front, the Post reported the current agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, or MAL) minister, Robert Sichinga, apologized to farmers for the late delivery of subsidized farming inputs [under the Fertilizer Input Support Program or FISP]. Not surprising ... they were late last year, the year before that, 2010, etc. FISP is one of the major hang-ups facing modern day Zambia's agriculture ... it would be one thing if the government said "You know what? We're not delivering inputs at all this year." Doubtless farmers would lose their minds, and the urban sector would go nuts (as subsidizing maize ends up being a subsidy for urban consumers), but at least farmers would know not to wait for a chance at the FISP teat for something that won't arrive anytime soon.

On the flip side, if the inputs came on time and were targeted correctly, FISP might make a long term difference in giving the poor a leg up. According to IAPRI, most of the inputs lands accrue in the hands of farmers who don't really need the inputs per se (i.e., they have the capacity to purchase inputs on their own). Rumor has it that most of these farmers receive multiple packs (despite regulations stating that individuals should receive one pack only) and sell these at quite a profit, esp. given the past subsidy amount (> 80%). This effectively kills our agro-dealer market outside of the line-of-rail where commercialized, mainly white farmers have requirements for inputs other than maize, D-compound (10-20-10, 6% sulfur) and urea (46-0-0), as people who have money to buy fertilizer or seed are getting much of theirs for nearly free from the government.

Instead, we have in-between. Poorly targeted and poorly implemented over successive years has left farmers in a quandary; no one wants to abandon the cheap inputs (because they're cheap and show that the government "cares for" the rural poor). Therefore, they wait while the rains start falling, their fields as yet unplanted. They plant with uniform fertilizers across the world's 27th largest country (slightly larger than Texas) despite a staggering variety of soil and rainfall regimes. Agro-dealers stay away from investing in the maize market due to the price disadvantage; most keep no inventory, as they cannot depend on custom from nearby farmers who are awaiting FISP packs. A lose, lose, lose, lose situation. 

Not surprising therefore that unless Hon. Sichinga makes hay on his promises to deliver the remaining inputs before the end of December, he may swap jobs with someone as was the case earlier this year due to the slow distribution of inputs in 2012/13. Hopefully Zambia can somehow break out of this cycle before the inevitable decline in the copper price strips the shoes of the rest of the economy.