Hunger stalks Buhera villagers
Saturday, 08 May 2010 18:59
BUHERA – Along a narrow dusty road from Muzokomba to Zangama village in Buhera district are patches of lifeless and sun-burnt crops in the small fields.
Even in the morning breeze, the dry maize leaves make a crackling sound under the feet while some tear-off in the blowing wind.
The crops wilted in the scorching heat and never reached maturity.
In one of the fields, Sosana Mhongoyo of Murairwa Village is busy harvesting a few groundnuts with other family members.
Like in other fields along this strip road, her millet and sorghum crops also withered in the scorching heat.
“This is all that we have,” she said while picking her groundnuts.
“This millet did not do quite well but we have to survive with what we have.”
Mhongoyo’s field epitomises the situation in the district where most households are facing serious food shortages after their crops wilted because of a prolonged dry spell that hit most parts of the country.
Although most of the families have not finished harvesting, some are already appealing for food assistance from charitable organisations.
Davison Gwara (37) of Tapfaya Village in Buhera called on non-governmental organisations to quickly move in to avert a disaster.
He warned that any delays in bringing food relief to the area would lead to mass starvation.
“There is severe hunger,” he said. “GO Zimbabwe (an NGO) is the only organisation that used to give aid to the old and the crippled here but the problem is hunger does not discriminate as it affects everybody.”
Most communal farmers in Buhera, which falls under geological region five, grow drought-resistant crops such as round nuts (nyimo), groundnuts, rapoko and sorghum.
But these succumbed to the prolonged hot weather and poor rains.
Already some families are having one meal a day.
“A few families managed to harvest round nuts, groundnuts and sorghum but it will not take them far,” said Gwara.
“When these groundnuts are finished, people will starve, I tell you.”
Councillor Simon Chigwidze of ward 24 in Buhera said hunger was now forcing villagers to sell their livestock for a song so that they could buy food.
“People here now sell their goats, chickens and cattle in order to raise money for food,” said Chigwidze. “I fear that after two or so months, people here will starve to death, starting with children and the elderly.”
Some able-bodied people from Chigwidze’s area now travel to Chivhu to work as domestic workers for a few days to raise money to buy food for their families.
Others, he said, go to Chiadzwa in Marange district where they try their luck in illegal diamond mining.
“As you see in that bar, there are several people magweja drinking beer.
“They are actually coming from Chiadzwa risking their lives in the process,” said Chigwidze.
Magweja is the term used to refer to illegal diamond panners.
Among the seriously affected areas in Buhera district are Muzokomba, Zvekare, Matsakanure, Mabhoko, Nyadi and Mushongwi.
Charitable organisations which used to assist the vulnerable and disadvantaged such as the sick, elderly and children have since stopped.
“We used to have organisations such as GO Zimbabwe, Batsiranayi and Rujeko which used to assist the sick but we don’t know why they stopped when the crisis is actually worsening,” Chigwidze said.
Equally hit by drought is Chimanimani district and villagers’ lives now largely revolve around the small pockets of irrigations schemes.
To them the schemes are “an oasis in the middle of a desert”.
The hardest hit areas are Gudyanga, Changazi, Tonhorai and Hotsprings in Chimanimani district, part of which also fall under climatic region five.
Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland provinces are also facing serious food shortages.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) has said at least 2,17 million people in the country need food aid and the figures are set to rise because of an expected poor harvest this year.
The ZRCS and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said people living with or affected by HIV were the worst affected by the food crisis.
Both organisations extended their emergency food operation from December 2009 until October this year appealing to donors for US$33, 2 million.
The World Food Programme (WFP) website says Zimbabwe still faces a cereal shortfall of around 677 000 tonnes during the current consumption year.
It says liberalisation of the grain market means that commercial traders have been able to fill some of this gap but a substantial international humanitarian assistance programme is still necessary until the harvest.
In recent years, WFP has assisted millions of people across Zimbabwe, including over five million in March 2009.
Agricultural experts expect the number of people requiring food assistance to surpass that of last year because of poor harvests across the country.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE