COST OF LIVING FOR FAMILY OF 5 IN LUSAKA INCREASES TO OVER K10,000
By Patricia Male
The cost of living for a family of five in Lusaka as measured by the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection -JCTR- Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket in February 2024 has increased to K10, 307.01.
This marks a substantial rise of K751.48 from the January’s figure of K9, 555.53.
JCTR Social and Economic Development Programme Manager Muchimba Siamachoka has attributed this to the average prices of various food items on the baskets increasing while food items continue to be influenced by seasonality of the products while on the other hand, the scarcity of the commodities on the market of some products is due to their importation expenses which tend to be affected by the exchange rate.
Ms. Simuchimba says JCTR therefore notes the urgent need for immediate interventions to cushion the worsening situation such as expediting the implementation of existing social welfare programs to provide immediate support to vulnerable populations, including cash transfers, healthcare assistance, and education support.
She says JCTR also calls for the implementation of short-term measures to stabilize prices of crucial goods, working with stakeholders in the supply chain among others.
PHOENIX NEWS
What we focus on tends to grow!
Let’s all become Producers of what we eat and the cost of living will come down!
If you continue focusing on problems, your problems will multiply. When you focus on blame games, you get more players wasting valuable energy on blame games.
When you focus on solutions on the way forward, more ideas come on board and before you know it, lives are saved.
One idea the Ministry of Agriculture needs to adopt and roll out is the idea of a Pfumfudza Plot, developed by The Foundation for Farming in Zimbabwe, a brilliant idea every household should adopt for their immediate family food security needs!
Sometimes we think it’s ploughing of vast lands that will improve food security and the answer is a very big NO!
The bigger you want to go, the more expensive it gets and you battle to do things very well and end up with very poor yields!
Rural Zimbabwean farmers who adopted this concept of conservation farming on a very small field of 16 meters by 39 meters, with a spacing of 75cm between lines and 60 cm between planting stations have been able to produce between 800 (16 by 50kg bags) and 1,000 Kg (20 by 50kg bags) of Maize, enough to feed a family of 6 for a whole year! DO NOT BURN YOUR FIELDS! Use any dry crop residual or dead matter to cover your soils! That way, moisture is retained in the soil, weeds are suppressed and as the mulch gets degraded, your soils become rich in nutrients!
Thanks to Foundation for Farming method, some of us have a very good harvest this year despite the drought situation because we adopted this concept!
It has very low input costs, only 2 kg Maize seed, 16grams Eccoterex granules for Fall Army worm control, applied at 2 weeks after germination, 12 kg lime, 8kg basal fertilizer, 2 tonnes manure (any), 16kg top dressing, and labor.
This will save the government a lot of money on FISP!
YouTube has several videos from foundation for farming.
Instead of wasting time listening to Negative minds, go to YouTube and search for “Foundation for Farming” method or “Pfumfudza Plot” and plant now under irrigation! By June, you will be harvesting enough food to last you for not less than another year (you will have enough food to last till June 2025)!
Get to work immediately you finish studying this method. Aim to plant this field by 15th March 2024 and install drip irrigation using just one average drum for easy watering!
In 3 months, you will have enough food!
STOP WASTING TIME ON POLITICIANS!
TIME IS MONEY!
Bally is fixing us.
A conman is someone that says one thing, then does the other. Basically a liar.
Fake statistics. Why Lusaka only and not whole country?