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Food Shortages Threaten Millions in Southern Africa: UN

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

Food shortages threaten millions in southern Africa: UN

JOHANNESBURG, July 7 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 million people in southern Africa will need humanitarian assistance in the coming year due to poor agricultural production, said UN agencies here on Thursday.

Following a recent crop assessment, it was found that Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Swaziland were not able to grow enough food to meet domestic needs.

Even if there were considerable commercial imports, serious food shortages would persist until the next harvest in May 2006, said the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

They said poor agricultural production was caused by erratic weather, and in some cases unaffordable inputs, such as fertilizer and seeds.

The two UN agencies and the SADC have completed the food assessment missions, finding that largescale food assistance across the region at household level was needed.

The 13 member states of SADC produced a cereal surplus of 2.1 million tons compared with 1.1 million tons a year ago. Most of the excess was produced by South Africa which harvested a surplus of about 5.5 million tons this year.

Assessments had found that about 2.8 million tons of food would need to be commercially imported into the countries to meet the largest part of the shortfall.

Of the total amount of food aid required by the countries, the WFP needed 266 million US dollars or 477,000 tons pledged immediately so that food could either be purchased locally with cash donations or shipped to the region.

"Given the gravity of the findings, WFP, FAO and SADC today called on donor governments worldwide to respond quickly and generously with food aid donations in kind or cash to avoid widespread hunger from developing into a humanitarian disaster," they said in a press release.

Government representatives from each country, together with UN and non-government organizations, are discussing the findings at a two-day meeting which started on Thursday.

The agencies suggested the region to formulate national policies on staple food prices, agricultural reform, and trade at national and regional level.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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