African Voices in pictures

Four photostories illustrate the difficulties of farming in Zambia's Sinazongwe region.

Communities in Sinazongwe live close to Lake Kariba. Thousands of small-scale growers in the region desperately need its precious water but instead watch helplessly as it bypasses them and goes to the mining town of Maamba, located nearly twice as far from the lake. Lack of irrigation or access to the lake's water deprives them of the water they need to survive.

When the rains fail, crops fail and the communities go hungry and fall dependent on food aid. These are precisely the communities EC aid should be targeting.

As the farmers say, food aid is crucial to keep them and their families alive, but what is needed more than anything is support in the way of resources such as land, water, credit and technical advice to help them continue farming and overcome droughts and climatic changes. Only then can they earn money to improve their lives and livelihoods in the long term