JOHANESBURG – Zimbabwe is the most food aid dependent country in the world, aid agencies said yesterday.
Also, nearly 55 per cent of children who died of cholera in the southern African country were malnourished.
This is according to a report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, quoting numbers from the World Food Programme.
‘Per capita, Zimbabwe is now the most food aid dependent country in the world. The World Food Programme believes that seven million people are in need of food assistance – somewhere between 65 and 80 per cernt of the population,’ the report states.
‘The UN believes that 54 per cent of all children who have died from cholera were malnourished, with 47 per cent of the country’s population undernourished.’
The food crisis was caused by several factors including hyperinflation which disenfranchised many agriculture farmers, the report states. Substandard seed
‘Zimbabwe’s fields are sown with substandard seed, scavenged often from granaries or from the side of the road. It is extraordinarily unlikely that the 2009 harvest will significantly surpass 2008 – the worst in the country’s history,’ says the report. – Nampa-Sapa
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