Posted by Lack of fertilizer and seeds, economic constraints and adverse weather have led to food insecurity in Zimbabwe, threatening to plunge five million people into hunger by early 2009, a new United Nations report released here has warned.
In a special joint report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday called for emergency action by the Zimbabwe government and the international community to avert a humanitarian crisis in the southern African country currently facing political turmoil and an economic meltdown.
FAO and WFP estimates that two million people in rural and urban areas would be food insecure between July and September of 2008 unless drastic action was taken to avert disaster.
The number of the food insecure was expected to rise to 3.8 million people between October “and peaking to about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009.â€
The joint FAO/WFP report also noted that maize production in Zimbabwe in 2008 would be 575,000 tonnes, some 28 percent lower than in 2007.
This year’s cereal production was expected to be 40 percent lower than in 2007, according to the report.
“The food insecure population will require food assistance amounting to 395,000 tonnes of cereals in 2008/09,†the UN report said.
The UN is currently assisting with food aid more than four million people in the country, a third of Zimbabwe’s population.
Source African Press Agency
