Because of the COVID-19 pandemic food prices have risen unprecedently to the disadvantage of many, for example, legumes have gone up by 30-40%. We have reduced meat (beef and liver) to match our income. Luckily, we do not buy maize as we make sure we have enough stock in our home. In most of every meal, we always make sure we have vegetables and fruits. We do skip these when times are not favourable though. We have our own chicken pen and at the moment we have about four or five chickens. This has helped us because we have eaten our own chickens for the last three months.
In addition to the chickens, I also have some pigeons which we use in our own food. It has been great to have our own chickens and has been very beneficial to us as a family and also for our own health. We will continue to maintain that. Unfortunately this year we were not able to have our garden, but we usually have our garden but hopefully, soon we will plant some vegetables in soil bags so that they can also produce some vegetables of our own.
As a family, we seldom eat out. We usually prefer our homemade food. We have always tried to strike a balance to maintain our healthy diet before and during this current COVID-19 spike and the tough economic climate when times have been very hard, we managed to avoid skipping meals. During the green maize season and pumpkins, we were able to just change meals so that we could eat a balanced diet. We do not have a “prescribed” routine, but as a family, we prefer natural greens like chisoso, bean leaves (khwanya), sweet potato leaves (kholowa), bonongwe etc. Additionally, we do have fresh and dried fish, local chicken, beef and liver whenever we can afford.
Price changes have been a mixed bag for the last year and that has continued into the year. The prices have not been stable and I have tried not to put myself under stress as this will be an ongoing trend. I usually frequent two shops where I buy groceries and I have noticed the price increases on sugar, cooking oil, soap, milk, bread etc. – the most sought after items. For example, cooking oil, the standard 2-litre bottle was at MK2650, now it’s at MK4285. My shopping is that I like to buy sugar, soap etc. quarterly, while I buy salt, matches and other things more regularly.
COVID-19 has impacted my family in food security in several ways. Market prices for groundnuts and maize in the months of January and February (harvest from 2020) crumbled. The “buyers” determined the prices and we had no option. The reason – COVID-19 has affected the economy.
We did not have enough money to buy fertiliser as we normally do. Our target is to have about 10-12 bags, but this year our harvest will be affected since had only 8 bags.
In general, COVID-19 has affected the economy for many people nationwide. However, we need to be “resilient” as COVID-19 is just one of the “emerging issues” that will continue to affect our lives. We need to diversify plans in terms of food security.
