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UN sees huge Zim food shortage
03/06/2004 20:43 - (SA)
Harare - United Nations crop forecasts estimate Zimbabwe will produce only half its food needs this year, despite the government's insistence that the country won't need emergency aid.
The government's stance has raised fears that it intends to use food as a political weapon in parliamentary elections early next year.
Zimbabwe's 12.5 million population consumes about two million tons of grain annually.
But total food production this year is likely to be lower than last year's 980 000 tons, most of it the staple maize, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a memorandum released on Thursday.
"The overall food deficit could be more than a million tons," the agency said, adding that the deficit would have to be imported.
The UN forecasts are based on a survey of three of Zimbabwe's main provinces.
Mugabe says they won't import maize
Last month, the government ordered three crop assessment teams from the United Nations' World Food Programme and FAO to stop their survey of rural areas before it was complete, saying its own forecasters expected a 2.4 million ton maize harvest this season.
In a May 24 interview, President Robert Mugabe told Britain's Sky News TV that Zimbabwe would "definitely not" be importing food this year.
However, humanitarian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government has been secretly importing food through South Africa and neighbouring Zambia.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has accused Mugabe's government of lying about food production and rejecting international aid so it can control distributions to the needy in the run-up to next year's elections.
Grain coming from Argentina, US
In the past, UN agencies and aid groups have reported attempts by district government and ruling party officials to withhold food from suspected opposition supporters.
Ship manifests monitored by the South African Grain Information Service since the beginning of the year record cargoes of nearly 200 000 tons of grain from Argentina and the United States destined for Zimbabwe.
The often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, combined with erratic rains, have crippled the nation's agriculture-based economy.
Critics say much of the choice farm land has been given to Mugabe supporters and is underused or lying fallow.
- AP
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