WFP says starts feeding 1.3 million hungry Zambians
Date: 29-Jan-02
Country: ZAMBIA
The WFP's emergency operation will distribute 12,000 tonnes of food to vulnerable families, but it needs more to carry people over to the end of April, when summer crops are harvested, the WFP's Jorges Martin said.
"Our information shows that 1.3 million people need emergency food to alleviate hunger," Martin told Reuters.
"The situation is very grave as people are in squalor in 23 districts," said Martin, adding, "We are giving 350 grams of relief maize to each person (per day) in an average family of five people to avert starvation."
Ajay Vashee, president of the Zambia National Farmers' Union (ZNFU), described the situation as grave in parts of the country and expected food shortages to last at least until April.
A provincial minister said people in Luangwa district in eastern Zambia were trying to survive on mangoes because they had no maize.
Zambia faces a critical shortage of staple maize meal following crop failure in the 2000/01 (April-March) season. Maize output fell by about 30 percent in to 490,000 tonnes, compared with domestic needs of some 700,000 tonnes.
The WFP appealed in December for $18 million to buy 42,000 tonnes of food for Zambia.
The WFP is transporting 6,160 tonnes of food from South Africa to Zimbabwe where politics and weather have led to food shortages. The WFP has appealed for 117,000 tonnes of food for Zimbabwe.
Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have donated cash to buy the 12,000 tonnes of maize being distributed by WFP in Zambia.
ELEPHANTS AND POOR RAINS
"The problem is acute. People need relief food. Elephants and poor rains have compounded the problem. Mango trees have either been destroyed by the elephants or have withered because of the heat," provincial minister Patrick Ngoma told Reuters, referring to the problems in Luangwa.
Luangwa Valley has some of Africa's largest elephant herds.
ZNFU's Vashee said the first maize from the 2001/02 crop would reach the market in late March. He said the consignment would be around 15,000 tonnes of artificially dried maize - enough only to ease the food shortage.
There are no estimates available for the crop this season, but Vashee said a lack of pesticides and fertiliser meant the 2001/02 crop might fall short again.
Zambia's shortage has its roots in a reduction in area under maize, capricious weather and weak prices in the last three crop years.
In October last year, the government granted tenders to four companies to import some 150,000 tonnes.
Less than a quarter of that maize has reached Zambia.