Harare - About 1.6 million of Zimbabwe's estimated 12
million people will need food aid during the peak of the dry season due to poor
harvests, the UN World Food Programme said on Friday.
The number is 60% higher than the one million who needed food
assistance last year, with most of them living in rural areas.
"The United Nations World Food Programme and our
partners are gearing up to respond to this large rise in food needs," said
WFP country director Felix Bamezon.
"Our field staff are already reporting signs of
distress in rural areas, including empty granaries and farmers selling off
their livestock to make ends meet."
The WFP said its $119m aid programme, meant to run through
to March next year, is facing a $87m shortfall.
The food aid agency said this year's cereal harvest was
about one million tonnes, one-third lower than last year and the lowest since
2009.
"The impact will be felt hardest at the peak of the
hunger season, from January to March next year," the WFP said.
"WFP's seasonal assistance programme normally starts in
October, but rural people already feeling the effects of the drought."
The "hungry season" is the period when the
harvested food runs out, months before the next harvest begins.
Food shortages are being blamed on erratic rainfall and dry
spells, limited access to seeds and fertilisers, a reduction in the planted
area, poor farming practices and inadequate crop diversification.
The worst-hit areas are the chronically dry regions of
southern Zimbabwe.
Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe has been facing
perennial food shortages in recent years following a slump in food production
blamed partly on President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms which saw
the seizure of white-owned farms for re-allocation to landless blacks.
The majority of the beneficiaries lacked the skills and
means for large-scale farming, and were given little support from the
government.