care Prof:
Although food security in Zimbabwe improved significantly following government efforts in addition to a US$70 million international assistance programme providing farmers with subsidized inputs, the country still desires agricultural and food support next year for some 1.68 million men and girls.
These are the main findings of a report released nowadays on a joint mission to Zimbabwe in June by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to assess the national crop and food security scenario.
The mission found that the area planted below maize, the main staple, elevated by 20 percent in 2010 to the highest level in 30 years and production rose seven percent over 2009.
Compared together with the poor 2008 season when less than 500,000 metric tons of maize was harvested, production a lot more than doubled in 2009 and 2010, to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively.
“The generous international support for the 2009/10 input campaign significantly contributed to this year’s relatively good harvest results, even if in some areas using the country rainfall distribution was uneven,” stated Cristina Amaral, Chief of FAO’s emergency and rehabilitation operations in Africa.
“Despite the improved availability of food, up to 1.68 million men and women will need food support because prices remain comparatively high for households with low incomes and little or no access to U.S. dollars or South African rand,” stated WFP’s Jan Delbaere, co-author of the report.
“Zimbabwe has only 1.66 million tons of cereals available as against a total desires forecast of 2.09 million tons in marketing year 2010/11 (April/March). That leaves a 428 000-ton shortfall,” said Liliana Balbi, Team Leader, FAO Global Information and Early Warning System.
Part of this will probably be covered by commercial imports, projected to total 317,000 tons of cereals, including 200,000 tons of maize.
The mission estimated 1.68 million Zimbabweans would be food insecure in 2010/11 and 133,000 tons of food assistance would be needed to feed them. The report stated that general poverty and chronic food insecurity had led to reduced diversity of consumption and had also contributed to an increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition among young kids. The report indicates that lack of liquidity remains a constraint to accessing inputs and increasing food production.
The 2009/10 input help programme, jointly formulated by AGRA, FAO, IFAD and WFP, proposed a quick impact programme that aimed to substantively boost smallholder staple food production in Zimbabwe.
The international community responded properly and FAO received contributions from a number of donors, such as the European Union, the United States of America, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Finland. The EU made the largest financial contribution below the European Union Food Facility for Zimbabwe inside the amount of ?15.four million ($20 million).
In total 51, 500 tons of fertilizer and 6,500 tons of maize seeds were distributed to 738,000 households. FAO also promoted conservation agriculture that helped farmers to improve soil fertility through the use of techniques such as maintaining soil organic cover, reducing tillage and better crop rotation.
The programme also promoted the use of vouchers which farmers could use to get the inputs they needed from nearby suppliers. The agricultural support programmes need to be continued during the next planting season to consolidate the gains achieved so far.
Source: World Food Program (WFP) – the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.
A full copy with the report is available here.