Zim hunger crisis deepens
08/12/2004 22:48  - (SA)  

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Harare - Zimbabwe produced just one-third of the food it needs this season, the main opposition said on Wednesday, predicting the hunger crisis would worsen in the impoverished southern African country.

The state Grain Market Board, the sole distributor of the maize staple, received less than 400 000 tons of the 1.2 million tons of maize and other grain it needs by the end of the April-October harvest, the Movement for Democratic Change said in its regular newsletter.

Zimbabwe consumes about 1.8 million tons of maize meal a year, or 5 000 tons a day.

Without massive food imports, the opposition warned that half the nation's 12.5 million population faced deepening hunger in coming months.

"Anyone who says there is enough food is lying," said Renson Gasela, the opposition's shadow agriculture minister.

The government has said farmers are holding back large quantities of food, an explanation questioned last month by a parliamentary panel made up of both opposition and ruling party lawmakers.

Agricultural production has collapsed in the four years since President Robert Mugabe ordered the seizure of about 5 000 white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.

Last year, 5.5 million people received food handouts from international agencies in what was once a regional breadbasket.

The government had forecast a bumper harvest of 2.4 million metric tons of grain this year, telling the UN food agency and other international donors it no longer needed emergency assistance.

The opposition accused the government of seeking to control food aid in order to use it as a political weapon in the run-up to key parliamentary elections in March.

Its officials in some districts of Chipinge, eastern Zimbabwe, have already reported that maize meal is only being distributed to people carrying ruling party membership cards - allegations the ruling Zanu-PF party denies.

The South African Grain Information Service, which monitors food movements in southern Africa, said that last week alone Zimbabwe bought 5 543 tons of grain from Argentina.

More regular shipments from South Africa and other nations were planned, it said.

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