Poor rural households in drought-ravaged southern Zimbabwe have exhausted their food stocks and are resorting to eating wild roots in a bid to stave off hunger. Erratic supplies by the state’s Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the lack of essential commodities in rural shops have combined to undermine food security in the semi-arid Matabeleland region.
In Tsholotsho, in Matabeleland North province, 49-year-old widow Sharon Mpofu said she was foraging for wild roots, identified as fit for consumption by an elder of the San clan from her village, to feed her two children. The San are renowned for their survival skills. The family had also begun to reap the rewards of a small community vegetable garden. ”This has become our way of survival. Our maize meal got finished last week; it is not even available in the shops. In the past few weeks, it was available, although some of us would struggle to get the money, but these days it is not there,” said Mpofu.
Tsholotsho Tjitatjawa’s village headman, Nkosilathi Sibanda, said: ”Although no one has died as a direct result of hunger, people are starving — they need food. Shops are empty and families are going for days without a decent meal.”
He noted that supplies from the GMB were sporadic, and when maize meal was available it was often unaffordable. ”What we need at this point is assistance from [aid] organisations,” said Sibanda.
The World Food Programme (WFP) only last week received written authorisation from the ministry of public service, labour and social welfare to begin food distributions to targeted vulnerable groups in 49 districts around the country.
An official from the GMB, who wished to remain anonymous, said that, although the state grain procurement agency’s silos in both Matabeleland North and South regions were fast running empty, ”the ministry of agriculture says there are several tonnes of maize in transit from South Africa. We are aware of the dire situation facing many people, and we hope food security will improve if we are [able] to get such deliveries,” the official said.
A recent report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network and the WFP on informal cross- border food trade quoted the South African Grain Information Service as saying that, by the end of August, the GMB had imported 403 000 tonnes from South Africa at a rate of 86 000 tonnes a month. ”A rate which is 28% below the planned monthly import of 120 000 tonnes per month. Zimbabwe requires a total of 1,2-million tonnes of maize before the next harvest,” the researchers commented.
Aid agencies have estimated that some four million people will require food aid in Zimbabwe in the months ahead. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has also warned that prospects for the 2006 agricultural season are being seriously threatened by the short supply and high costs of inputs such as seeds, fuel and fertiliser.