Rising food prices leave many

Nearly one in two citizens struggles to access enough safe and nutritious food to live active, healthy and productive lives, says University of Botswana, human nutrition Professor Maria Nnyepi. Professor Nnyepi said that for the 2022/23 period, 49.4 per cent of the population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, a figure that starkly illustrated how widespread and deeply rooted the problem had become. “Food insecurity is not simply about the 20.2 per cent of Batswana who often sleep hungry due to lack of food, it also includes the 29.2 per cent who often worry and are uncertain of where their next meal will come from, or find themselves eating food of lower nutritional quality or quantity than they would like simply because they do not have a choice,” she said.

For many households, the reality translates into smaller portions, skipped meals and diets dominated by low-cost staples, high fat and sugary foods with limited nutritional value. Over time, Professor Nnyepi explained, this undermined health, learning outcomes for children and overall productivity, perpetuating cycles of poverty and vulnerability. “As Botswana navigates the complex realities of undernutrition, over nutrition and food insecurity, it must be remembered that nutrition is not just a health issue, it is a foundation for national development.

Investing in better nutrition today is an investment in healthier and a more productive generations tomorrow,” she said. Highlighting Botswana’s nutrition landscape, Professor Nnyepi noted that it reflected stark contrasts. “On one hand, 28.9 per cent of children under five are stunted, indicating chronic nutritional deprivation with irreversible effects on physical and cognitive development.

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Wasting affects 7.3 per cent of children, a rate higher than the Southern African regional average and a marker of acute vulnerability,” said Professor Nnyepi. On the other hand, she stated that obesity had risen sharply, particularly among adults. “More than one in three women (32.1 per cent) are obese, compared to 9.7 per cent of men.

Diet-related non-communicable diseases now account for 46 per cent of all deaths in Botswana, with diabetes affecting 10.6 per cent of adult women and 8.8 per cent of adult men,” said Professor Nnyepi. She attributed those trends to urbanisation, changing lifestyles and unhealthy food environments that have transformed eating habits, often at the expense of nutritional quality. These trends she said, were not simply matters of personal choice, ‘they are shaped by food systems, urban design, economic pressures and policy environments that allow unhealthy options to be cheaper and more accessible than nutritious ones.’ One of the most significant drivers of food insecurity in Botswana, Professor Nnyepi added, had been persistent food price inflation.

As the cost of basic food items continues to rise, household purchasing power has steadily eroded. Even families with some form of income, find themselves unable to keep up with escalating prices, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas, where people depend almost entirely on purchased food rather than subsistence production. Persuaded by price per volume over quality, many households live from month to month on starchy food packages commonly known asCombo.

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