U.N. Asks for Release of Grain

With up to 6 million Zimbabweans facing hunger in the coming months, the United Nations has called on the country’s government to release more than 250,000 tons of maize to ease crippling food shortages.

The southern African nation is in the grip of an economic crisis with hyperinflation nearing 600% and shortages of petrol and basic food. Aid agencies report that people have had to sell their possessions so they can eat. Many have nothing left to sell.

The state-run Herald newspaper quoted the head of Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board in late December as saying that the government was only about 11,000 tons short of its 275,500-ton target for the 2002-03 season, which is significantly up from last year’s procurement of 50,000 tons.

The newspaper report left aid workers asking where the maize was and what the government planned to do with it.

So far, the U.N. has received no official response to its request that the maize be released.

The Herald report prompted speculation by critics that authorities could be stockpiling grain, even as millions go hungry because inflation has robbed them of the means to buy food.

Critics of President Robert Mugabe’s regime blame his land seizure policy for many of the country’s problems. White farmers were forced off farms -- often violently -- so land could be returned to landless blacks. The policy triggered a collapse in agricultural production, which had already been hit by drought.

Some government officials abused the system, acquiring rich farmland for themselves.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence in 1980. He held on to power in 2002 elections criticized as flawed by international observers.

Zimbabwe consumes about 5,500 tons of grain a day, authorities say, so the maize collected by the grain board amounts to less than two months’ supply.

If the grain was released onto the market, it would go to those still able to buy maize, not the neediest Zimbabweans who rely on food handouts from international agencies.

In December, the U.N. World Food Program halved grain rations because of the poor response from international donors.

The World Food Program plans to feed up to 4.5 million people in March, the peak crisis period. With some reports putting the number needing food aid at 5.5 million to 6 million, the agency is banking on the Zimbabwean government to release grain to feed its people.

“Looking at the situation on the ground, we continue to be very concerned. In places where there are the most vulnerable, we’re finding [even] more vulnerable people are pitching up,” said the agency’s country director, Kevin Farrell. “There’s a big shortage of food, and the prices are reflecting that.”

He said release of the maize by the Grain Marketing Board “would have a very positive impact.”

About 85% of the U.N. agency’s target for food aid this season has been pledged, with recent contributions coming from the European Union and the United States. The difficulty now is getting the food to people in time.