Efforts in food mobilization commendable

It is known that this year most farmers, both commercial and communal did not harvest much in their fields; hence there is need for massive mobilization of food. However, some sections of the media were over exaggerating in their reporting n food shortages carrying alarming headlines like: 'Zimbabwe food situation dire'. This is over exaggerating because government is embroiled in a number of food programmes which are meant to assist those families whose farm produce were affected by the worst drought ever.

In as much as the government is doing its best to mobilize food for a number of households whose food crops were affected by El-Nino induced drought, there is also need for non-governmental organizations (NGOs)and civil society groups to chip in and provide a helping hand where possible.

Food is a basic human right which must be accessed by every individual. There are quite a number of interventions that are being done by Government as a way of alleviating hunger in most rural areas. For instance, programmes such as food for work, where villagers are required to provide certain labour to the community then they will be given either maize, beans or cooking oil.

There is also maize grain for social welfare which is being distributed monthly by government to villagers in rural areas to address this hunger situation. Government has also acquired about 600, 000 tonnes of maize from Ukraine and Zambia which will be distributed among the families facing food shortages.

To add on, government has introduced one hot meal in primary and secondary schools as a measure of countering starvation among school children. Children are among the many vulnerable groups that are in need of food supplements as they risk the danger of being exposed to malnutrition.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education have already started distributing the food handouts in most schools. This is a positive move which will ensure that all school going children attend their classes without fail. Long back, some cases were reported that some children were missing lessons because of hunger.

Government has even reduced the price of maize at Grain Marketing Board so that the general public can also afford to access it. Previously, a 50kg bag of maize was sold at $23. That same bag of maize was then reduced to $15. This was a positive move by government which will allow many people to access the grain.

In other words reporting that the food situation in Zimbabwe is dire is an insult to government which is busy mobilizing maize and food aid to alleviate hunger.

Local and international NGOs should play their role in mobilizing relief resources for the affected households and communities.

The responsible distributing authorities should ensure that the food aid that it provides is not diverted to wrong hands, but is channeled to the intended people. There is a tendency of distributing the food aid to the wrong people or keeping it for selling. This should be avoided by all means possible.

Hunger has many impacts which includes high rate of diseases and mortality as well as low productivity among current and future generations.