Hungry Zim

Hungry Zim Emergency imports secured Eleventh hour maize imports will stave off starvation in Zimbabwe, for now. Zimbabwe has reportedly secured at least 100 000 tons of maize grain from Mexico to help avert the hunger crisis that has affected more than four million people in the southern African country.

Zimbabwe and a number of other sub-Saharan countries have been hit hard by El-Nino induced drought, forcing the country to import maize from other countries.

Early this year Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa was quoted as saying that the government was busy sourcing maize.

Mnangagwa said at the time that Zimbabwe was ready to accept international help to curb food shortages.

A report by New Zimbabwe said that the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) recently managed to negotiate with Mexico on behalf of government in South Africa.

"At the high-level meeting we progressively held with Mexico, we agreed that GMAZ will sign up to 100 000 tonnes of white maize to be supplied by Terra Wealth (Mexican milling company) to supplement our local grain reserves," GMAZ chairperson Tafadzwa Musarara was quoted as saying.

Last month the country sourced the same amount of maize from Tanzania, the report said.

Musarara also said that Mexico would be granted some contract farming deals in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is a food-deficit country, ranked at 156 out of 187 on the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index. Currently, 72% of the population live below the national poverty line (living on less than US$1.25 per day). Thirty percent of the rural poor are considered to be ‘food poor’, or ‘extremely poor’. Food and nutrition security remain fragile and subject to natural and economic shocks in Zimbabwe, chronic undernutrition remains relatively high, despite some improvements. Dietary diversity is generally poor and consumption of protein is insufficient. Only 11% of Zimbabwean children aged six to 23 months receive a minimum acceptable diet. One-third of Zimbabwe’s children are stunted, or short for their age.

In recent years, food production in Zimbabwe has been devastated by a number of factors including natural disasters and economic and political instability. Recurrent drought ( due to increasingly erratic rainfall patterns), a series of poor harvests, high unemployment, restructuring of the agriculture sector and a high HIV/Aids prevalence rate – at 14.7%, the fifth highest in the world - have all contributed to increasing levels of vulnerability and acute food insecurity since 2001. This situation has necessitated large-scale humanitarian food relief operations in the country.

Rural poverty has increased from 63% in 2003 to 76% in 2014. Most households in the rural areas are net food buyers: They do not produce enough food to meet their needs through to the next harvest season and as a consequence, have to rely on markets and other non-farm sources such as casual labour to bridge the food gap to the next season. As such, a number of people in rural areas will struggle to meet their daily food needs.

Zimbabwe’s 2014/15 agricultural season registered a 51% decline in maize production compared to the 2013/14 season due to drought which was particularly severe in the south of the country. According to a report published in July 2015 by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC), some 1.5 million people – 16% of the rural population - will have insufficient means to meet their minimum food needs during the 2015-16 lean season, that period prior to the next harvest when domestic food stocks tend to become depleted. This represents a 164% increase on the numbers of food insecure people during 2013-14 though it is only a little above the five-year average for Zimbabwe. In response to this, WFP is due to launch its relief operation end of September 2015 that will be based on a combination of food distributions and cash-based transfers where possible.

The country continues to face economic stress which has implications on food security, especially for vulnerable groups in rural areas. Due to deflation/ disinflation, household incomes remain low and liquidity challenges affect the demand for goods and services, especially for poor households. Barter is a common form of exchange during lean periods. Where grain is used for such transactions, household food stocks tend to get exhausted at a faster rate.

NEWS24