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From VOA News, 27 June

Zimbabwe formally asks UN for food aid

Harare - The World Food Program says more than five million people in Zimbabwe, almost half the population, will need food aid from the international community between now and the next grain harvest in April of next year. This is the second year in a row that the international community is being asked to supply food to millions of Zimbabweans. The United Nations said this week that the worst affected are hundreds of thousands of former workers from commercial farms. There are several reasons for Zimbabwe's food crisis. President Robert Mugabe launched a land reform program in mid-2000, which has, in each season since then, seen less crops produced and foreign currency reserves plummet. Economists say the program, which saw more than 90 percent of productive white farmers evicted from their land, is the major contributor to the collapse of the economy. In addition, erratic rainfall is also blamed for the shortfall in production, as well the government's inability, because it lacked the money, to import agricultural products and equipment from abroad.

This week, World Food Program officials in Zimbabwe presided over a meeting of foreign donors to plan for yet another round of food shipments from abroad, leading to a peak in distribution between January and April next year. The Zimbabwe government has formally asked the WFP for continued food aid, but has still not provided statistics on the latest harvest nor projections for summer plantings. Up until three years ago, Zimbabwe was always able to feed itself, even when droughts hit, as it had enough money to import food when crops failed. Now Zimbabwe's economy is the fastest shrinking in the world and the country does not have foreign currency to import a whole range of commodities from fuel to ink to print bank notes. The World Food Program says the more than 200,000 workers who once worked on the commercial farms are particularly threatened. Not only did they lose their jobs when their employers' land was seized, they have not been allocated land on which to grow crops. But people who live in the city are also suffering. Many of them lack basic foods, such as maize meal. Maize is available on the black market, but not many people in the city can afford to buy it.

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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 27 June

Dispossessed farmers to export maize

Blessing Zulu

Zimbabwe is set to import maize and seeds from farmers who migrated to Zambia after losing their land under the land reform exercise. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stan Mudenge, two weeks ago said Zambia was ready to export maize to Zimbabwe. One of the farmers, Peter McSporran, confirmed that Zimbabwe's former commercial farmers had produced a good maize crop which they would export to Zimbabwe. "Former commercial farmers who have settled here are close to 50," said McSporran. "These farmers managed to grow over 30 000 tonnes of maize and next year this is likely to increase to about 50 000 tonnes and most of it will be exported." McSporran said they were also targeting Zimbabwe for the export of agricultural seeds. "We also hope to export seeds to Zimbabwe and this includes seed maize in excess of 12 000 tonnes, soyabeans and wheat," he said. Zimbabwe has a deficit of 1,2 million tonnes of maize and farmers have complained that they do not have enough seeds for the next season. The taskforce on food security, together with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, would work out the modalities of importing maize after assessing the quantity required. Mudenge acknowledged that Malawi and South Africa also had bumper harvests and said it would be quicker and cheaper to import maize from these countries than from suppliers in the Americas. Ironically, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of maize before the war veterans led farm invasions.