More than 10-million people in Southern Africa will need humanitarian assistance in the coming year because of poor agricultural production, food agencies said on Thursday.
Following a recent crop assessment, it was found that Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Swaziland are not able to grow enough food to meet domestic needs.
Even if there were considerable commercial imports, serious food shortages will persist until the next harvest in May 2006, said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The agencies said large-scale food assistance across the region at household level is needed. They said the region also needs to formulate national policies on staple food prices, agricultural reform, and trade at national and regional level.
Together, the 13 member states of SADC produced a cereal surplus of 2,1-million tonnes compared with 1,1-million tonnes a year ago. Most of the excess was produced by South Africa, which harvested a surplus of about 5,5-million tonnes this year.
Assessments had found that about 2,8-million tonnes of food would need to be commercially imported into the countries to meet the largest part of the shortfall.
Of the total amount of food aid required by the countries, the WFP needs $266-million or 477 000 tonnes pledged immediately so that food can either be purchased locally with cash donations or shipped to the region.
”Given the gravity of the findings, WFP, FAO and SADC today called on donor governments worldwide to respond quickly and generously with food aid donations in kind or cash to avoid widespread hunger from developing into a humanitarian disaster.
”The assessment teams were struck by the scarcity of maize at harvest time in some countries, prompting the need for an immediate response,” they said.
Government representatives from each country, together with UN and non-government organisations, are discussing the findings at a two-day meeting which started on Thursday. ‒ Sapa