Lack of formal appeal threatens food security

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it needs an official appeal for food aid from Zimbabwe before donors will pledge their support to the emergency operation in that country.

Zimbabwe is once again the worst-affected by food shortages in the southern African region.

"The major causes of the much lower than normal production of cereals this year include erratic rainfall, limited availability of seed and fertiliser ... and the newly settled farmers not being able to utilise all the land, due to lack of adequate capital and inputs, or collateral to procure them. Following the land reform programme, the large-scale commercial [farming] sector now produces only about one-tenth of its output in the 1990s," a joint WFP/ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) assessment mission noted in June.

The mission estimated that "4.4 million people in rural areas and 1.1 million in urban areas will require food assistance in 2003/04".

In the latest Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation Report, the WFP said that while it had "prepared the Zimbabwe component of its new EMOP (emergency operation), based on a written request for continued humanitarian assistance from the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare in late May 2003, "WFP [still] awaits a formal appeal for specific amounts of food aid", which "several major donors" had made clear was a requirement "before committing resources to fund food aid in Zimbabwe".

"It takes at least three months after a donor pledge is made for food to arrive in-country. WFP food stocks will run out in August," the agency stressed.