2,5 million people to get food assistance

Sunday Mail Reporter

GOVERNMENT is currently assessing the number of households in need of food aid, with preliminary findings indicating around 2,5 million will require assistance.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima told The Sunday Mail that the country has enough grain to feed the vulnerable.

While Zimbabwe is set to produce a record harvest this year, some districts in Matabeleland North and parts of Manicaland are likely to have a grain deficit.

Professor Mavima said the survey to determine the actual number of people in need of assistance was ongoing.

The Government, he said, will not import grain after the country produced enough cereals during the 2020/2021 summer cropping season.

“Our preliminary surveys show that at most only 2,5 million people may need assistance,” he said.

“These are people in areas like Matabeleland North, southern parts of Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, and other isolated districts that have traditionally struggled to produce due to their climate.

“We are already carrying out surveys through Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, ZimVAC, to ascertain the actual areas and number of people that will need food assistance during the peak period.

“Also, we are not going to import to feed our people as we have produced enough food in the country to feed our people.”

The exercise, he added, will be completed by the end of July.

“It is called a re-targeting process. It is taking place throughout the country, indicating which areas did not get good harvest to sustain the people, which areas need relief aid and which areas would need relief later on in the season.

“So that is what is taking place right now. While that assessment is done, they are going to do what we call retargeting, which will indicate the households which will continue to get support in the rural areas.

“We are hoping that by the end of July, we would have an indication of who is supposed to get what.”