UN agencies say 1.7 mln Zimbabweans need food aid
Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:05am GMT
* Aid still needed despite farm sector recovering
* Poverty increases chronic malnutrition in children
HARARE, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Nearly 1.7 million Zimbabweans will require food
assistance in the 2010/11 season despite the recent recovery of the
country’s troubled agriculture sector, United Nations agencies said in a
report on Tuesday.
Agriculture plumbed new depths in 2008 when farmers produced 500,000 tonnes
of the staple maize against national requirements of 2 million tonnes, but
production has since picked up in the past two years to 1.35 million tonnes.
International aid targeting provisions of free seed and fertilisers for
farmers in the once famine-threatened country, better use of land, and the
end of hyperinflation have led to the improvement in harvests.
“Despite the improved availability of food, up to 1.68 million people will
need food assistance because prices remain comparatively high for families
with low incomes and little or no access to U.S. dollars or South African
rand,” co-author Jan Delbaere of the U.N. World Food Programme said in the
report. Zimbabwe discarded the use of its worthless dollar last year after
inflation reached 500 billion percent, but few U.S. dollars or rand
circulate in rural areas.
A Food and Agriculture Organisation official said in the same report that
Zimbabwe had 1.66 million tons of cereals available against a total need of
2.9 million tonnes for 2010/11, leaving a shortfall of 428,000 tonnes.
A Malawian government minister said last week the country would export
300,000 tonnes of its surplus maize to Zimbabwe.
The U.N. report said general poverty and food insecurity had contributed to
increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition in young children.
Once a regional bread basket, Zimbabwe has failed to feed itself since 2000
following President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned commercial farms
for black resettlement, leading to sharp falls in production.