Zim needs food aid
About 1.6 million of Zimbabwe's estimated 12 million people will need food aid during the peak of the dry season due to poor harvests, the UN World Food Programme said.
Picture taken from www.unmultimedia.orgOur field staff are already reporting signs of distress in rural areas, including empty granaries and farmers selling off their livestock to make ends meet
The number is 60 percent higher than the one million who needed food assistance last year, with most of them living in rural areas.
"The United Nations World Food Programme and our partners are gearing up to respond to this large rise in food needs," said WFP country director Felix Bamezon.
"Our field staff are already reporting signs of distress in rural areas, including empty granaries and farmers selling off their livestock to make ends meet."
The WFP said its $119 million (97 million euro) aid programme, meant to run through to March next year, is facing a $87 million shortfall.
The food aid agency said this year's cereal harvest was about one million tonnes, one-third lower than last year and the lowest since 2009.
"The impact will be felt hardest at the peak of the hunger season, from January to March next year," the WFP said.
"WFP's seasonal assistance programme normally starts in October, but rural people already feeling the effects of the drought."
The "hungry season" is the period when the harvested food runs out, months before the next harvest begins.
Food shortages are being blamed on erratic rainfall and dry spells, limited access to seeds and fertilisers, a reduction in the planted area, poor farming practices and inadequate crop diversification.
The worst-hit areas are the chronically dry regions of southern Zimbabwe.
Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe has been facing perennial food shortages in recent years following a slump in food production blamed partly on President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms which saw the seizure of white-owned farms for re-allocation to landless blacks.
The majority of the beneficiaries lacked the skills and means for large-scale farming, and were given little support from the government.
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Mondi
you reap what you sow Mugabe!!Report Abuse
jen
How sad. To think that once Zimbabwe farmed more than enough food to feed their people and the entire African continent. Let us learn by this unfortunate example and not chase away our own farmers so that one day, we too will starve.Report Abuse
Agmedtheterrible
not very far in the distant future SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS FOOD AIDReport Abuse
knobkirrie
jen- Its not the farmers who produce food, its the expertise. Mugabe chased farmers away before he could gather the know-how of food production. In SA, farmers own vast tracts of land but only use about 30% of it for food production, the rest is used for poaching and leisure. Of course Mugabe is responsible, but can it all be attributed to 1 man? Zim has been free since 1980. For 3 decades no one thought of doing productive farming in that country?? We can blame the despot all we like, but shirking responsibility has been Motherland's downfall since colonialismReport Abuse
Nyongoyamavenda
Limpopo here we come,Gog help usReport Abuse
Nyongoyamavenda
I min God help usReport Abuse
16-12-1838
@ KNOB (head) - who is your dealer? That Zanu-PF nyaope is seriously mind altering stuff!- "farmers own vast tracts of land but only use about 30% of it for food production"
- "Its not the farmers who produce food, its the expertise."
- "Of course Mugabe is responsible, but can it all be attributed to 1 man?"
What the hell are you talking about? ...and what have farmers ever done to you, besides providing you with some of the best food around. You are obviously too young and have never left the comfort of your middle class teenage bedroom to have any idea about suffering caused through starvation.
Get a life @sshole!
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BIOBER
eish ppl are suffering out ther mxm wish god cud ansa their prayersReport Abuse
Dandan
knobkirrieAgmedtheterrible
jen
Mondi
Before you make comment must be backed by concrete evidence, what ever you make here is baseless poor . Mugabe chased away whit.e farmers in order t reannex land equitable amongst the Zimbabweans, before 60 whites farmers occupied land now Zim have 6000 blac.k emerging farmers, the land was reduced in plots in order to accommodate as much bl.ack farmers as they can.
As we speak today these bla.ck emerging farmers are making +- $10k after yield which is very huge for small farmers, compared before where minority whi.te farmers took all.
Coming back to food shortage in rural areas as person from rural area myself Kwa Nongoma, you never die of hunger in the rural area , you have cattles, you milk, make sour milk, we plough amadumbe, sweat potatoes with two sweat potatoes you are full for the whole week, my take is laziness laziness laziness or UNWFP is lying.
My last word is Zim economy is shaping up watch the space your SA is nothing to Zim all of you will run to Zim in search of better opportunities dont overwrite Zim. The stance took by Mugabe was the best one to redistribute land amongst black Zimbabweans, step by step they will be there.
All what is needed is SA to support in terms of infrastructure development to make it easy for Zim to quickly transport their staff to the East, watch the space here we come as Africa
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BokFan
Clearly this writer ignores the facts. There are 6 million Zim refugees in SA. So its actually 1.6 million out of 6 million who are starving. Thats worse than in 4.In my book thats genocide
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