International NGOs prepare to distribute food

International NGOs working in Zimbabwe are preparing food distribution and food for work programmes despite the government's reluctance to admit to a food crisis, representatives said on Tuesday. "We're initially targeting about 130,000 people in the Midlands and Matabeleland South provinces," Zvidzai Maburutse of World Vision International (WVI) in Harare told IRIN.

Food shortages in these regions have been largely drought induced, impacting adversely on a population mainly made up of subsistence farmers. Lack of food in other areas has been attributed to additional factors, including the government's chaotic land reform programme, as well as a severe foreign exchange shortage.

During a recent food assessment mission to the two provinces, WVI found that in seven districts, over 50 percent of the population had no livestock, no reliable source of income and no agricultural implements, and that very little grain production was taking place. "The problem is trying to identify those really in need, those without remittances from South Africa and entirely dependant on subsistence farming," he added. WVI have received funding from USAID, and food importation and distribution would commence soon, Maburutse said.

Oxfam in Zimbabwe is trying to help a smaller number of rural people - about 8,500 - "but that's just phase one, we'll expand if we can secure enough funding," Arif Khan, Oxfam's regional humanitarian coordinator told IRIN from Pretoria. He added that Oxfam was equally concerned about food shortages in urban areas and that his agency was trying to address this problem as well. Both agencies said they had secured permission from government to import food aid at a time when the issue of food shortages is of growing political sensitivity. Oxfam is attempting to raise about US $1 million to fund the first part of its programme.

"It's like talking to two governments right now - at a local level there's a great deal of concern and enthusiasm for food aid, at national there's still a strong element of denial that parts of the country are going to starve soon," one aid worker who wished to remain anonymous told IRIN. Khan said he was aware of the possibility of President Mugabe's government using food aid as a political tool in the run-up to next year's crucial presidential election. "If there's any attempt by government to control Oxfam's food aid programmes we would have to think again," he said.

Further signs are emerging that the government is trying to assert control over dwindling food supplies. At the weekend the 'Zimbabwe Standard' reported that the army had been deployed to enforce a recent government decree that farmers sell all their maize to the government. Communal farmers in Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central are reportedly the worst affected as the army is now monitoring the sale of grain as well as the ferrying of the crop to various destinations around the country. Farmers said they were being forced to sell to the controversial Grain Marketing Board (GMB) for half what they could get privately for their maize.

Finance Minister Simba Makoni told parliament recently that 100,000 mt of maize and 60,000 mt of wheat would have to be imported to make up for shortfalls in domestic production. According to a United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate in June, Zimbabwe will need to import a total of about 570,000 mt of maize and wheat to avert starvation and replenish its reserves.