Tag: food crisis

Zimbabwe will need more food aid in the south as crisis looms

Zimbabwe, ruled by the despotic Robert Mugabe installed as leader by Great Britain in 1980, is still experiencing food shortages, mainly as a result of its anti-white policies which saw most white commercial farmers ethnically cleansed from the country.

According to Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an NGO, “food security is expected to deteriorate to Crisis and Emergency levels between October 2015 and March 2016 in the southern region. Outcomes will be significantly better if typical assistance is delivered, though Crisis and Stressed food security would still be likely due to the above-average retail maize prices expected in the southern cereal-deficit areas”.

While lauded for his anti-white policies by liberals and leftists all over the world, Robert Mugabe has plunged his own country into prolonged famine and disorder. According to the World Food Programme, “One third of Zimbabwe’s children are stunted, or short for their age.” The international agency also states on its website:
Rural poverty has increased from 63 percent in 2003 to 76 percent in 2014. Most households in the rural areas are net food buyers: they do not (for a number of reasons) produce enough food to meet their needs through to the next harvest season. Consequently, they rely on markets and other non-farm sources such as casual labour to bridge the food gap to the next season. As such, a number of people in rural areas will struggle to meet their daily food needs.

The state-run Herald is reporting that the country needs to import at least 700,000 tonnes of maize between now and the next harvest early next year to avert a food crisis.

Zimbabwe also receives electricity from South Africa, where years of neglect by the radical ANC regime has equally led to power cuts and shortages.

Africa faces food insecurity

Three-quarters of African countries and several “Arab Spring” nations are at high or extreme risk of a food crisis, according to an analysis published on Wednesday.

In a survey of 197 countries, 59 are most at risk of food insecurity, the British consultancy Maplecroft said.

Thirty-nine of these are African, it said.

Out of the 11 countries that are in the “extreme risk” category, nine are in Africa.

They include Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are ranked joint first, Burundi (4th), Chad (5th), Ethiopia (6th), Eritrea (7th), South Sudan (9th), the Comoros (10th) and Sierra Leone (11th).

Haiti (3rd) and Afghanistan (8th) are the other two countries in the extreme risk category.

“Although a food crisis has not emerged yet, there is potential for food-related upheaval across the most vulnerable regions,” including sub-Saharan African and Arab states, said Maplecroft’s Helen Hodge.

The 48 countries considered to be at “high” risk for food supplies include Yemen (15th), Syria (16th), Pakistan (27th), Papua New Guinea (33rd), North Korea (35th), Iraq (54th) and Libya (58th).

Egypt, ranked 71st of the 197 countries, and Tunisia, 100th, are among medium-risk countries.

Sources of food insecurity range from conflict and instability in the Sahel, DRC and eastern Africa to rising prices for corn, caused by the worst US drought in 50 years and declining production in former Soviet countries, Maplecroft said.

The report, called the Food Security Risk Index, is intended for governments, NGOs and businesses to identify countries that could be susceptible to hunger or unrest because of food shortages or price hikes.

“The drivers of the ‘Arab Awakening [Spring]’ were varied and complex and included long standing public anger at high levels of governmental corruption and oppressive tactics against populations and political opposition,” said Maplecroft.

“When these factors combine with food insecurity, sparked by rising global prices, it can create an environment for social unrest and regime change.”

Notable changes compared to last year’s rankings were North Korea (19th on the 2011 list); Egypt (88th) and Syria (89th). – AFP