Zimbabwe: Widespread food shortages looming
Johannesburg: Large-scale food assistance to Zimbabweans could start in the next few weeks, according to a USAID situation report released on 16 July 2009.
Zimbabwe's April 2009 harvest, although considerably better than in previous seasons, was still 680,000 tons short of the national requirement. Initial estimates in a crop report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) are that about 2.8 million people will need food assistance in 2009/10.
At the height of the 2009 lean season - the few months prior to harvest - nearly seven million people required food aid, a figure that gradually escalated from the FAO/WFP June 2008 projection that about 5.1 million Zimbabweans would suffer food insecurity.