November 2nd, 2015 - ZNFU Friday Brief, Week #44

The views expressed in this blog are the opinions of the author, and do not reflect the views of Concern Worldwide.

As I peer out the office window, I see what the collective corpus of Zambian agriculture has been waiting to see for a long time; darkness brought on by burgeoning dark clouds and the first breathe of cool air in months. Not 30 minutes I ran out to sow the small plot I've prepared next to the office with Crotalaria (sunnhemp, red and black) and Mucuna (velvet beans); the hope is that they will emerge quickly and overwhelm the other weeds, particularly the nasty couch grass (Cynodon dactylon), the bane of all fertile, tilled land on this new and ancient continent.

This first rain is as eagerly awaited by agriculturalists as I suppose it is by farmers; reason being is that the rural poor tend to be aware of the date, but understandably, fall into something of a lethargic mode due to the heat of October. "understandably" is my concession to the fact that when temperatures hit the low forties Centigrade (around 110 Fahrenheit), your capacity to think, let alone plan and work, is severely limited. The incipient rain breaks this slumber; people shift into high gear, looking for money for seeds, renting oxen / ploughs / tractors, digging ridges / basins (damn things are hard to dig when the soil's bone-dry and rock-hard), etc.

"Oh! the joy." Wrote Clark when  he saw the Pacific. An immense wind carried every dry leave, every loose piece of grass, every mote of dust was carried from west to east (odd direction for the wind to rise). At approximately 16:48 GMT, the skies opened ... and now it's lashing down at a 30 degree angle off vertical. Great relief not to have to water the garden for awhile, though I'm sure there will be issues with the sewerage tonight (things get hardened up and half the drains clog.

ZNFU Friday Brief, Week #44 (my comments in red)

ANNUAL INFLATION RATE HITS 6 YEAR RECORD

Zambia’s annual rate of inflation was recorded at 14.3 percent for the month of October 2015 by the Central Statistical Office. This means that on average, prices increased by 14.3 percent between October 2014 and October 2015.  This is above the September 2015 inflation rate of 7.7 percent. The last time Zambia’s annual rate of inflation was at similar levels was in August 2009.  According to CSO, the sharp increase in the October 2015 inflation rate was as a result of increase in prices of both food and non-food items. Transport recorded the highest price increments of 23.8 percent. The only consumer, price index (CPI) groups that did not record any price increment were housing, electricity, gas and other fuels and communication which were constant in comparison to the other month 

ZNFU APPEARS IN PARLIAMENT TO MAKE SUBMISSIONS ON THE EMPLOYMENT (AMENDMENT) BILL

The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) appeared before the parliamentary committee on Economic Affairs, Energy and Labour to make submissions on the Employment (Amendment) Bill on Thursday 29^th October 2015 at parliament buildings. The Union was happy that the Bill took on board key issues that ZNFU lobbied the Minister of Labour last year during stakeholder consultations. For example, the Bill provides for “seasonal employment” which is defined as employment under a contract of service where timing and duration of the contract is influenced by seasonal factors such as climate, agricultural or business peak cycle. This is good especially for members growing crops such as tobacco that has an 11 months business cycle. Further, the Bill also allows “casual employees” (I refer to them as the hunger serfs), and that this relates to a person whose employment is not permanent in nature; and does not require any skill in the performance of the work done for a period of 6 months.

However, the Union was concerned that employers under fixed term contract would still be required to pay service benefits (such as 3 months basic pay per year served on retirement, 2 months per year served on redundancy, e.t.c. on top of NAPSA service benefits. They have a legitimate beef here ... every month employers pay NAPSA (Natl Pension Scheme)   which is somewhat like Social Security; this  The Union noted that these service benefits are a liability to members as they are not accounted for in taxes because they are future expenses for employers.  In addition, many farmers in Zambia, especially emergent farmers, are not covered by collective agreements and will be unable to create jobs if they have to abide by the minimum wages and conditions of service Act.

I included this because most emergent farm labour is very under the table; the further out you go from the Hub, the more labour is paid in food. It's not a labour market; on the contrary, this year, there's more hungry mouths attached to those idle hands. We were talking to some farmers a few weeks back and they explained you get a basin of cassava for digging a quarter hectare (over half an acre), and that finding work had gotten harder and harder. Concern calls this hidden hunger; there is food around, but many can't get to it.