Peter Matika, Senior Reporter

AN estimated 45 million people — mostly women and children in Southern Africa are food insecure with Zimbabwe hardest hit following consecutive droughts and widespread flooding, a report compiled by World Food Programme (WFP) has revealed.

WFP made a passionate plea to the world to step in and avert the crisis by aiding communities to adapt to climate change.

“This hunger crisis is on a scale we have not seen before and the evidence shows it’s going to get worse,” said Miss Lola Castro, WFP’s Regional Director for Southern Africa.

“The annual cyclone season has begun, and we simply cannot afford a repeat of the devastation caused by last year’s unprecedented storms. While our most pressing priority are the millions in need of immediate support, building the resilience of the many more threatened by frequent and destructive droughts and storms is absolutely essential,” Miss Castro said.

She said the international community must accelerate emergency assistance to millions of desperately hungry people in Southern Africa.

“With temperatures rising at twice the global average and most of its food produced by subsistence farmers entirely dependent on increasingly unreliable rains, Southern Africa has had just one normal growing season in the last five years. In many places, this season’s rains have again arrived late, and experts forecast continuing hot and dry weather in the coming months, presaging yet another poor harvest,” said Miss Castro.

She noted that WFP plans to provide lean season assistance to 8,3 million people grappling with emergency levels of hunger.

“To date, WFP has secured just US$205 million of the US$489 million required for this assistance and has been forced to resort heavily to internal borrowing to ensure food reaches those in need. Zimbabwe is in the throes of its worst hunger emergency in a decade, with 7,7 million people — half the population — seriously food insecure,” said Miss Castro.

Meanwhile, Government has also set up measures and deployed resources to affected areas and has also identified water bodies, which will be used to grow maize and other crops. Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Cde Lovemore Matuke said the Government was working together with its partners to make sure no one dies of hunger.

“The Government is working towards averting the drought situation. Efforts by NGOs and other organisations are well appreciated and also add to efforts by the Government to sustain our nation in so far as food security is concerned. We will be working closely with organisations that seek to assist our country.

“Further to that, we have been importing a lot of maize from South Africa and we want to work towards growing our own. In that light the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement has managed to identify a significant number of water bodies, which will be used to grow maize, as a complementary measure to reduce imports,” said Cde Matuke.

@peterkmatika