Ensuring Food Security: Spearhead of All National Programs
Even though the agricultural activities in our country are confined to the summer season, it is this time of the year that many Eritrean farmers are engaged in hard labor to ensure their year long food security. In Eritrea, a country which is located in a region where there is scarcity of rainfall, one must come up with ways to utilize all that little rain in the agricultural endeavors and reserve what remains of it in water preserving structures. As it is, currently the people of Eritrea are working hard to gain from what’s expected to be a hopeful season of rains.
Come each year, one of the tasks that are assigned a foremost priority in our national endeavor is ensuring food security. Eritrea, a nation that is found in a region that’s constantly riled by natural or man-made disasters, a nation which has become an island of peace and stability in a region rife with conflicts and uncertainties remains largely unaffected by food shortage because it has mainly directed its efforts to ensure food security.
The focal reason why ensuring food security was made a priority in our national endeavors was recognizing that political and social problems mainly trace their roots to food dependency. Also, many forces attempt to use food shortages as means to hold the people and nation hostages to their ill desires. As a result of the culture of dependency that has been instilled by imperialist forces and their puppets in many parts of our world, numerous negative effects can be witnessed. Hence, humanitarian aid, often distributed under the pretext of feeding the hungry masses, comes with dire consequences such as violating national integrity of nations and throws them at the mercy of those donor nations, thus creating a polarized master and slave relationship.
Living in such a reality, it is natural to see the people and Government of Eritrea have been toiling day and night tirelessly to ensure food security. Eritrea is one country in the Horn of Africa that enjoys limited resources in terms of land and water. But as what matters at the end of the day is the collective mentality, having little resources did not limit the people and government. Because we have worked combining our past experiences, capacities in technological as well as human aspects and the trend of management we’ve followed that increases outcomes, Eritrea has been able to register commendable results in this regard. And we should not waver in our efforts and development drive until we reach our final destination.