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Rural Zim runs out of food
21/12/2004 17:24 - (SA)
Thabang Mokopanele
Johannesburg - A large proportion of Zimbabwean rural households have run out of their food stocks and, like most urban households, have become dependent on the market to cover their food requirements, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews-Net) said on Tuesday.
In its latest Zimbabwe food security update, Fews-Net said that
increased poverty in both rural and urban areas, manifested by low income levels and limited income generating opportunities, continues to constrain households from buying sufficient staple cereals (maize, sorghum and millets) and their close substitutes (sugar, rice, wheat flour and bread) even though they are generally available in most markets throughout the country.
The Grain Marketing Board's (GMB) monopoly in maize and wheat grain trade
is forcing up prices in the informal grain market, the organisation warned.
Fews-Net added that response to these needs would be limited, with a one-off distribution, which will cover only a small percent of the total household food gap.
The organisation said that staple food prices are already too high for the majority of the poor and are increasing at very high rates.
The annual food inflation for September 2004 was estimated by the
Central Statistical Office (CSO) at 264.8%, according to Fews-Net.
Fews-Net added that the cost of basic goods and services has increased over 200% between October 2003 and October 2004. Incomes have remained low and the marginal increases have never kept pace with the cost of the basic expenditure basket.
The October 2004 minimum industrial wage of Z$437 500 (R440) could only cover about 28% of the October 2004 basic expenditure basket.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe government has given the World Food Programme (WFP) permission to undertake a one-off general free food distribution to clear WFP's stock, which remained when general free food distributions stopped following the April 2004 harvest.
The food will be given to an extended list of beneficiaries of the public works programme, under which the government is providing food assistance to social welfare cases.
The distribution, which is likely to take place in December, will be made up of 21 000 tons of cereals and 8 000 tons of pulses.
Fews-Net warned that except for two northeastern provinces of
Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central, and a smaller part of Matebeleland South, the country received lower than expected rainfall by the end of the third week of November.
Much of the rainfall for the current season came in the last ten days of October and around the middle of November.
The period in between was characterised by dry and hot conditions that saw soil moisture quickly lost through evapotranspiration.
This limited land preparation and planting and ultimately agricultural casual labour opportunities.
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