REGIS CHINGAWO IN MASVINGO
Nearly 400 000 people in Masvingo province will require food assistance this year due to poor harvests.
This was revealed in the latest Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee survey for 2018.
According to the assessment, 318 775 people in the rural communities in the province, will not be able to meet their cereal requirements, while the demography states that 42,8 percent of the rural households were female headed.
The report also notes that about 51,
\\\\\\\\\1 percent of the rural population in the province is living below the food poverty datum line. On the urban population of Masvingo city and Chiredzi town, 27 007 people will not meet their cereal requirements, notes the report, with 29 percent of the urban households being female headed.
About 6 058 and 20 949 people in Chiredzi Town and Masvingo City, need some food assistance.
The Provincial Administrator for Masvingo Province, Fungai Mbetsa told Business Times that the most affected districts are Bikita, Chiredzi, Mwenezi, Zaka, Chivi and Masvingo.
“From the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s re port for 2018, 38 percent of Chivi villagers are in need of food aid, 38, 6 percent for Mwenezi, 32 percent for Bikita and 20,8 percent for Zaka district, said Mbetsa.
“This means that in all these districts, the population will require food aid.”
The provincial administrator, however added that the survey will have to be redone in the case of Chivi District, as the percentage of the population in need of food aid was too low.
“From our own assessment that we carried out as the province, we noted that in Chivi District more people will require food aid, than those mentioned in the survey,” Mbetsa said.
We must take into cognisance that Chivi district is one hundred percent rural without any industry, manufacturing or mining ventures.” He added: “The district perennially experiences poor rainfall and the latest assessment from the livestock and crop assessment department shows that there was a massive poor harvest in the district.”
Mbetsa said to augment the dire food deficit in the districts affected, some non-governmental organisations have already begun distributing food handouts.
“We are glad to note that some organisations such as World Food Programme (WFP) and their partners such as OXFAM, have already begun a programme of dolling out food handouts in the affected districts,”said Mbetsa.
The province has a population of over 1,2 million.
The Tokwe-Mukosi dam is expected to improve the food situation in the province through irrigation
