THE FOOD BALANCE SHEET

 The food balance sheet is basically a ‘mathematical spread sheet’ presentation of aggregate food requirements netted against available food stocks with the resultant balance either being a surplus or a deficit. It is used by countries worldwide and was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The food balance sheet is time-bound, for example, it’s maybe monthly, quarterly, yearly based on marketing or a consumption year. – It focuses on a specific geographical area, such as. a district, province or country.

The National Food Balance Sheet

The National Food Balance Sheet (NFB) takes into account the total national availability or supply of major staple food crops which include:

1. carry-over stocks or opening stocks
2. current production
3. imports
4. food aid
5. human consumption

1. government strategic reserves
2. stock feed
3. breweries
4. seed
5. post-harvest losses
6. exports

In Zambia the staple food crops that are analysed in the Food Balance Sheet (FBS) are maize, rice, wheat, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and cassava. The 2006/07 Agricultural Season (production for the Marketing Year 2007/08) had a forecasted national maize surplus of 250,000 metric tonnes. Total maize supply was 1,799,188 metric tonnes which was made up of maize production of 1,366,158 metric tonnes and maize carry-over stocks from the previous season of 433,031 metric tonnes compared to the total maize requirement of 1,549,188 metric tonnes. This was declared a surplus year (“achieved national food security“).

Actually, the total national food supply measured in maize mealie-meal equivalent showed a food surplus of 628,396 metric tonnes. The total food available measured in maize mealie-meal kilocalorie-value equivalent figures in the FBS are computed as the sum of all staple food crops including maize that are reported in the FBS.

The Food Balance Sheet is an instrument which relates food supply or availability to food demand or requirement. In a particular consumption or marketing year, the FBS helps in estimating the magnitude of food adequacy, shortages or surpluses at a national level. It depicts the annual national food security position but not necessarily the household food security situation.

The FBS, therefore, does not give a full picture of the household food security situation. However, it can give an indication of how in general terms the household level food security situation is likely to be. Just like the district or provincial food production figures may not give the precise situation at individual household level, but they could be indicative of what is likely to prevail for the majority of the households.

For example, the FBS may show that there is adequate food at national level as is the case in the 2007/08 marketing year and yet the larger proportion of the food could be concentrated or confined in only a few areas of the country such as Mkushi Farm Block, from which households in chronic food deficit areas such as Chama or Shangombo may not be able to access the adequate or surplus food. Besides distance and poor infrastructure, Access to food can also be prevented by price if it is too high for the majority of the population.

The FBS figures should, therefore, be used or interpreted correctly to avoid misleading conclusions in ascertaining the food security situation for individual households. Other approaches or tools, such as household surveys, nutritional surveillance and marketing systems, can be used in comprehensive assessments and analyses of household food security situations.

Food Reserve Agency

In seasons of maize production deficits, maize prices usually go up beyond the reach of poor households. The Government through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) and the private sector will import maize to make up for the short-fall in national requirements.

The imported maize does make up for the national quantitative requirements but at the household level the imported maize may still not be accessible to many households due to the high prices. In seasons of maize deficits, therefore, imported maize does not fully address the household food insecurity of the poor. On the other hand, in seasons of local maize supply surplus, some farmers mainly large scale commercial farmers and commercial traders export maize taking advantage of food production deficits in neighbouring countries.

The national food reserves from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) have helped in stabilizing maize supply and prices in the past several years. However, the very high cost production structure in Zambia has made Zambian maize exports to be more expensive in comparison to maize from countries such as Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. Agriculture production costs are very high in Zambia due to high costs of inputs such as fertilizer, hybrid seed, fuel, as well as high electricity tariffs. Besides the maintenance of maize stocks through FRA, other market-based approaches to deal with maize supply fluctuations need to be employed. These approaches could include warehouse receipts, differential pricing, weather insurance etc.