The extent of the need was revealed in this year’s Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee report. The assessment, which estimates national food insecurity levels, is conducted annually by the government in collaboration with UN agencies and non-governmental organisations.
The report on food needs in Zimbabwe says that nearly one in five rural people in the country – an estimated 1.6 million people – are likely to need food assistance during the peak of the coming hunger season. The number of people in need is 60 percent higher than the one million who needed food assistance during the last lean season.
In an interview with The Zimbabwean in Chivhu after his speech on World Food Day recently, Bamezon said: “We hope that the programme will start next week. We are trying to mitigate the effects of this shortage on most households. We are currently organising distribution of food in the regions that are being determined as food insecure by ZimVAC, starting with Masvingo province.”
Villagers in some parts of the country were being forced to sell their livestock and other valuable assets to sustain their families. Bamezon said the government, through the GMB, had allocated 35,000 metric tonnes to the Ministry of Labour and Social Services.
“WFP is currently organising the transport of this food in designated locations to be near the places were the families are most in need.”
According to the ZIMVAC report, this year’s harvest was 1,076, 772 metric tonnes, one-third lower than last year and the lowest since 2009. The impact will be felt hardest at the peak of the “hunger season,” from January to March next year.
Bamezon said WFP’s Seasonal Targeted Assistance programme, due to run until the end of March next year, had been budgeted at $119 million but was currently facing a shortfall of approximately $63 million.
“We don’t have enough funds. We have received pledges from various donors (and) we are yet to collect all of them, but we are hopeful that we have enough to start the programme.”
The nation requires 1,384,000 tonnes of grain for human consumption and 350,000 tonnes for livestock and other uses.
The report identifies Masvingo, Matabeleland North and South, and parts of Mashonaland, Midlands and Manicaland as the worst-affected areas.
Post published in: News