Zim Facing Severe Food Shortages In Six Provinces
21/03/2011 17:20:00
Harare, March 11, 2011 – Six of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces face severe food
shortages, and the government has ordered the country’s grain marketing
board (GMB) to send grain to the affected areas, a state daily said on
Monday.
“The GMB is holding on to 270 000 metric tons and have to start helping our
people,” Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told The Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe needs an estimated 2.2 million tonnes of maize each year.
A government crop assessment carried out in January found that the country
had more than two million hectares of maize planted, up from 1.8 million
last year, and was expecting to harvest 1.7 million tonnes.
The United Nations has appealed for $415m to feed 1.7 million people this
year until the harvest starts in May.
This year Zimbabwe received normal rains at the beginning of the year, but
some crops have been written off following a dry spell between February and
March.
Since 2000, the southern African nation has faced successive years of food
shortages that coincided with controversial land reforms launched by
long-time President Robert Mugabe to seize nearly 4 000 white-owned farms
for redistribution to landless blacks.
The programme has combined with poor rains and shortages of seed and
fertiliser to force a country once considered the breadbasket of the region
to depend on food aid. – AFP