HARARE, 15th May, 2024 (WAM) -- Zimbabwe’s cabinet has said more than half of the nation’s population of about 15 million people will immediately need food aid until March next year, as the country reels from the impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon. This has already slashed corn output and led to a national state of disaster being declared, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
“A total of 7.7 million people, being 51 percent of the population, will require food assistance,” Jenfan Muswere, the information minister said at a post-cabinet briefing held on Tuesday in the capital, Harare. “This excludes a further 4.5 million who would require school meals.”
The southern African nation’s rural areas are the most affected with 6 million people in need of food assistance until the first quarter of next year. A report by the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee put those in need of food assistance in urban areas at 1.7 million people, according to Muswere.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry has revised upwards its estimate of the devastation of Zimbabwe’s corn output this season to 77 percent from a previous 72 percent estimate. The country estimates production at 744,271 metric tonnes of corn. Zimbabwe consumes 2.2 million tonnes of corn annually, with 1.8 million tonnes used for food and 400,000 tonnes used for livestock feed.
“Government is working hard to ensure that no one will die of hunger,” said Muswere. Zimbabwean grain millers plan to import at least 1.4 million tonnes of corn from some Latin American nations including Brazil by July to address the shortfall.
The El Niño weather phenomenon has triggered a dry spell across southern Africa that has slashed South Africa’s corn crop by at least a fifth and led countries including Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to declare states of national disaster because of crop failures. Last week, the UN Office for the Coordirnation of Humanitarian Affairs made an appeal for US$429 million to help Zimbabwe. The agency previously also asked humanitarian partners for US$228 million for Zambia.
“The whole of the southern African region experienced an El Niño season, although Zimbabwe seemed to be the epicentre for the phenomenon,” Muswere said.