UN warns 2,4m in need of food aid in Zimbabwe

UN warns 2,4m in need of food aid in Zimbabwe

THE UN warns over 2 million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid

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• Mugabe too busy to meet UN envoy

• Zim rejects food aid

• UN aid agencies pull out

• Bread prices up 50 percent

• Fears Mugabe may use food for campaign

• Zimbabwe turns back food aid

• Nyambuya's workers desert farm

By Agencies

ZIMBABWE'S harvest will not meet the country's food needs and it will be forced to import food, a BBC report quoting UN officials said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the country faces a shortfall of 325,000 tons of cereals this year.
The Zimbabwean government has predicted a record harvest of 2.4 million tons of maize.

But FAO says it expects the harvest to be less than half that figure - around a million tons of cereal crops.
It says erratic rainfall, a shortage of quality seeds, deep poverty and a mismanaged land reform programme are behind the poor harvest.

In a new report, the UN food body warns that between 30% and 40% of farmers may run out of food from their own production by the end of July.

FAO's report comes days after a survey said 2.3 million rural people would need food aid in the next year.

Experts from FAO were ordered to leave the country before they completed their mission, but they visited the major cereal-growing provinces of Mashonaland, Manicaland and Matabeleland.

FAO's Henri Josserand, head of the Global Information and Early Warning System, told BBC News Online that he thought the country would be forced to import food to make up the shortfall.

"If they bring all the food that is missing, they have the resources, but what will they do with the food - do they give it for free? Do they sell it? Will people be able to afford it?" Mr Josserand said.

"Some [people] won't have enough money - those are the ones that we are concerned about - unless the government can give food for free, they will go without."
From BBC
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