Zimbabwe’s rural dwellers brace for food shortages

BIKITA – Winnie Mupunga normally produces 40 000 kilograms of the staple maize on her smallholding in south-western Zimbabwe but this year she does not expect to harvest even 500.

“This is all I have to show for the past year,” she said pointing to acres of emaciated metre-long brown maize stalks bearing tiny cobs or nothing at all. “We’ll just have to rely on handouts this year.”Zimbabwe, formerly the region’s breadbasket, has been hit by a drought in several of its 10 provinces which has served to compound the hardship of a nation already reeling under the effects of a 1 730 per cent inflation rate.Bikita district, 400 kilometres southwest of the capital in Masvingo province is one of the areas worst affected by the drought.A few kilometres from the Mupunga homestead reside Ngwarai and Mabel Zevezanayi, a couple in their late fifties who are responsible for the upkeep of nine dependants, among them five grandchildren aged under 12 years.But all they have left is 20 kilograms of sorghum donated by an international relief agency operating in the area.”We have no produce to talk about this year,” said Mabel.There is no news of when next they are lined up for handouts.And the largest foreign food relief agency operating in the country, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), announced at the end of last week that it was scaling down aid to Zimbabwe starting this month.WFP fed some 1,5 million most vulnerable people over the past three months, the most critical time of the year dubbed the pre-harvest “lean season” when poor families routinely struggle to find enough to eat.”With the annual harvest due in April, WFP is scaling down its aid operations in Zimbabwe from this month, reducing the number of beneficiaries to 256 000 in April,” said the agency in a statement.Meantime, the Zevezanayi family, with no other source of income, resorts to brewing traditional beer with part of the donated grains so it can make a bit of money for other essentials.”We are brewing this beer to sell.Maybe we can get some cash to pay for the milling of the little grain we have left,” said Mabel of the sorghum she is so sure will not last her family even a week.To save the meagre grains, the family skips meals.”We don’t even remember what breakfast tastes like.It’s only the children who have anything before they go off to school – a few peanuts and some tea without any sugar,” she added as she spooned some sorghum porridge into the hungry mouth of her four-month-old grandson.”I can hardly sleep when I try to think of where I will get food for my family.”In the previous two drought years, she had chickens which she could either sell or slaughter for her family to eat but the poultry has now all gone.Down the road at Masarira primary school, about 30 children receive a daily ration of beans and starch-based cereals during their mid-morning break.For some it is the only meal they will have in the day, said head teacher Zvinavashe Takabvirakare.”When we have no food stocks, we experience numerous cases of pupils fainting in class” as a result of hunger, he said.”Unless there is food aid, I think this time it’s going to be very difficult for the children.”The drought has been persistent for about four years and now, coupled with the harsh economic conditions, it’s worse.”When the food shortages are severe, on average 10 per cent of the 470 pupils drop out, but in the kindergarten section, not even half bother to walk several kilometres back and forth on an empty stomach.Authorities and aid agencies are yet to study the full impact of the drought but the opposition has warned that the country will fall 1,3 million tonnes short of its food needs this year.The government has admitted food will run out in parts of the country, but said the shortages will not be critical.”The situation is really not very serious to say there will be a crisis,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said last Tuesday.The cash-strapped government has already started importing grain to avert starvation.Finance Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi last month spoke of plans to import about 400 000 tonnes of maize to make up for a possible food shortfall.Bikita district chief Johnston Mupamhadzi said: “It’s going to be bad, this is the worst drought” in recent years.”We really need assistance because the district has not produced enough for the past four years,” he said.Zimbabwe is already saddled with economic crisis characterised by a four-digit rate of inflation, unemployment of around 80 per cent and chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs like cooking oil, sugar and foreign currency.Nampa-AFP”We’ll just have to rely on handouts this year.”Zimbabwe, formerly the region’s breadbasket, has been hit by a drought in several of its 10 provinces which has served to compound the hardship of a nation already reeling under the effects of a 1 730 per cent inflation rate.Bikita district, 400 kilometres southwest of the capital in Masvingo province is one of the areas worst affected by the drought.A few kilometres from the Mupunga homestead reside Ngwarai and Mabel Zevezanayi, a couple in their late fifties who are responsible for the upkeep of nine dependants, among them five grandchildren aged under 12 years.But all they have left is 20 kilograms of sorghum donated by an international relief agency operating in the area.”We have no produce to talk about this year,” said Mabel.There is no news of when next they are lined up for handouts.And the largest foreign food relief agency operating in the country, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), announced at the end of last week that it was scaling down aid to Zimbabwe starting this month.WFP fed some 1,5 million most vulnerable people over the past three months, the most critical time of the year dubbed the pre-harvest “lean season” when poor families routinely struggle to find enough to eat.”With the annual harvest due in April, WFP is scaling down its aid operations in Zimbabwe from this month, reducing the number of beneficiaries to 256 000 in April,” said the agency in a statement.Meantime, the Zevezanayi family, with no other source of income, resorts to brewing traditional beer with part of the donated grains so it can make a bit of money for other essentials.”We are brewing this beer to sell.Maybe we can get some cash to pay for the milling of the little grain we have left,” said Mabel of the sorghum she is so sure will not last her family even a week.To save the meagre grains, the family skips meals.”We don’t even remember what breakfast tastes like.It’s only the children who have anything before they go off to school – a few peanuts and some tea without any sugar,” she added as she spooned some sorghum porridge into the hungry mouth of her four-month-old grandson.”I can hardly sleep when I try to think of where I will get food for my family.”In the previous two drought years, she had chickens which she could either sell or slaughter for her family to eat but the poultry has now all gone.Down the road at Masarira primary school, about 30 children receive a daily ration of beans and starch-based cereals during their mid-morning break.For some it is the only meal they will have in the day, said head teacher Zvinavashe Takabvirakare.”When we have no food stocks, we experience numerous cases of pupils fainting in class” as a result of hunger, he said.”Unless there is food aid, I think this time it’s going to be very difficult for the children.”The drought has been persistent for about four years and now, coupled with the harsh economic conditions, it’s worse.”When the food shortages are severe, on average 10 per cent of the 470 pupils drop out, but in the kindergarten section, not even half bother to walk several kilometres back and forth on an empty stomach.Authorities and aid agencies are yet to study the full impact of the drought but the opposition has warned that the country will fall 1,3 million tonnes short of its food needs this year.The government has admitted food will run out in parts of the country, but said the shortages will not be critical.”The situation is really not very serious to say there will be a crisis,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said last Tuesday.The cash-strapped government has already started importing grain to avert starvation.Finance Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi last month spoke of plans to import about 400 000 tonnes of maize to make up for a possible food shortfall.Bikita district chief Johnston Mupamhadzi said: “It’s going to be bad, this is the worst drought” in recent years.”We really need assistance because the district has not produced enough for the past four years,” he said.Zimbabwe is already saddled with economic crisis characterised by a four-digit rate of inflation, unemployment of around 80 per cent and chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs like cooking oil, sugar and foreign currency.Nampa-AFP