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BASIC NEEDS BASKET RECORDS DECLINE IN COST: WHAT IMPLICATIONS FOR FARMERS? June 2007 The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) Basic Needs Basket has shown a decline of K18, 150 in the cost of food for a family of six in Lusaka. This figure represents a significant reduction in the cost of basic food recorded for a long time but is indicative of the behaviour of food prices, particularly mealie meal, during this time of the year. Reductions were recorded for a 25kg bag of breakfast meal whose average cost went down by K2,100, 1kg beans reduced by K200, a kg of dry fish by K6,500, a kg of meat K500, a unit of eggs K300, a kg of green vegetables K500. Both tomato and onion recorded declines of K100 while a kg of Kapenta recorded an increase in cost of K800. Cooking oil, bread and salt remained the same in cost as in the month of May. As for essential non-food items, charcoal, packed in a 90Kg bag, continued with its downward trend with the reduction of K5,000 being much more significant compared to K1,200 recorded for May. Other essential non-food items such as wash and bath soap remained the same compared to the month of May. Overall, essential non-food items reduced by K10,200, influenced primarily by the reduction in the price of charcoal. The overall cost of the Basic Needs Basket, that is, taking into account cost of food and essential non-food items such as charcoal, wash and bath soap amounted to One important issue to observe about the reductions in cost of food is that there is a relatively abundant supply of food items available on the market. Two observations, however, are worth underscoring. The first is that it is a favourable situation to the urban households as they experience some relief in relation to cost of living. The second is the importance of agriculture in determining living conditions of the people. Underlying both of these is the important but long time difficult and delicate task of ensuring that while price reductions of agricultural produce benefit urban populations, prices of these products should not be in such a way that they make it impossible for small scale farmers or households to meet other needs of education, health, etc., and even more importantly to sustain small scale farming. Getting the so called “right price”, market access, input supply arrangements, farming methods, etc., have, by and large, been factors that have determined progression or lack thereof of small scale farmers and generally defined agricultural performance in Zambia. Indeed the cost of food must not be unaffordable, especially taking into account the levels of employment in Zambia. At the same time, if Zambia has to be effective in its fight against poverty, which is more widespread and intense in rural areas, there has to be ways in which the mainstay economic activity (agriculture) of the people helps them to move out of poverty. |
Related Links June 2007 BNB @ K1,517,100 |
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