A Million Face Hunger As Zimbabwe Fails to Provide Seeds to Farmers
04 November 2011
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network earlier this week warned that one
in 10 Zimbabweans will need food aid through year’s end, more in early 2012
as the so-called hunger season develops before harvest
Violet Gonda | Washington
Parts of Zimbabwe suffered serious crop failures earlier this year and a
million people are likely to need food assistance as a result, according to
a report by the Solidarity Peace Trust, a civic organization based in South
Africa
Though the rainy season has begun in Zimbabwe, the organization warns that
next year could see increased food insecurity because the government has
failed small farmers by not making seed and fertilizer widely available to
them.
The group said Harare should urgently spread seed and fertilizer among small
farmers, and is urging South Africa to hold off on deportations of
undocumented Zimbabweans who may only face hunger if they are sent home in
the months ahead.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network earlier this week warned that one
in 10 Zimbabweans will need food aid through year’s end, more in early 2012.
Solidarity Peace Trust director Shari Eppel, the report’s co-author, said
there is grinding poverty in the frequently parched province of Matabeleland
South in particular.
She said that in Gwanda, for example, half of the households interviewed
spent a day without food, and most of them lost livestock to drought and
marauding baboons.
Gwanda North lawmaker Thandeko Zinti-Mnkandla said hunger is widespread due
to a poor harvest this year and insufficient assistance from government and
NGOs.
Eppel said the Finance Ministry has announced it will fund crop inputs for
100,000 small farmers and subsidize them for another 250,000 through a
system of vouchers that will be administered by the state-controlled Grain
Marketing Board.
“But when you speak to people on the ground they have never heard of this
system,” Eppel said, “and yet the rains have already started and people
should be planting.”