The ManicaPost
Liberty Dube
Post Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has accelerated efforts to avert hunger during this peak hunger period through the drought relief programme, while simultaneously registering new food insecure beneficiaries in all the seven districts of Manicaland.
The registration of new beneficiaries who were made food insecure after their livelihoods were affected by the El Nino induced drought that ravaged the 2023/24 agricultural season is expected to end on April 15.
In a post Cabinet briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere said to avert hunger during the peak hunger period, Government has so far distributed 6 631.83 tonnes of grain to a total of 663 183 beneficiaries across the eight rural provinces.
A total of 461 325 people across Manicaland Province have been affected by the drought since January 2024, with Mutare District being the hardest hit out of the seven districts.
Mutare District currently has a total of 134 431 people in need of food aid, followed by Chipinge District with 11 523. Buhera District currently has 96 682, while Makoni has 56 511 vulnerable people.
Chimanimani currently holds a total of 34 274 followed by Mutasa with 14 974 and Nyanga with 12 925.
There are six distribution cycles in the food aid programme, with each beneficiary receiving 10kg of grain per month with the exception of Buhera where beneficiaries are receiving grain, cooking oil and beans as supplements courtesy of the World Food Programme (WFP).
WFP winded up its operations in Buhera last month, but there is an arrangement that beneficiaries will continue to receive food hampers in April and May, after which they will be joined by more food insecure families.
Government and its partners will make sure that no citizens die of hunger, and will implement plans to actualise President Mnangagwa’s objective that no one is left behind in the development trajectory.
Beneficiaries being targeted are those with no or low harvests, households with malnourished children and households headed by people with disabilities, orphans, women, the elderly, children or chronically ill people.
Secretary for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mr Abiot Maronge on Wednesday revealed that the statistics will go up as more vulnerable people are still registering for the drought relief programme in all the seven districts of Manicaland.
Mr Maronge said the new registrants should have been captured by April 15, following which the names will be added to the existing list for them to start receiving grain.
Registration is being done through village heads in the respective communities, with the District Development Coordinators, who head the drought relief committees, overseeing the process to ensure transparency and fairness.
This follows a poor agricultural season in which a mid-season dry spell ruined crops before they reached maturity.
He said the total allocation of grain will be known after the April 15 deadline.
“The registration process of additional people is already underway, and it is being done by village heads. We have started in the rural areas across all districts in Manicaland, and we are urging everyone who needs drought relief support to take advantage of the process and register.
“No one should be left behind, and by April 15, we expect all beneficiaries to have registered after which the distribution of grain will start. This is a Government-led programmme and as President Mnangagwa has assured the nation — no citizen will be left behind and die of hunger.
“This is a massive exercise, and we are happy that the process is progressing well. The blitz has no hiccups, and we expect the quantity of the grain required in Manicaland to be determined by the number of new registrants, plus the existing ones who have been receiving assistance between January and March 2024.
“The quantity of grain required throughout the province will determine the nature of the logistics required to move the grain from the source to the distribution points,” said Mr Maronge.
According to the Crops, Livestock and Fisheries Assessment Report (Pre-harvest)
CLAFA-1 (2024), the hot and dry conditions-associated El Nino were experienced in Manicaland and other provinces for the greater part of the 2023/24 season.
“The dry weather conditions were experienced in November and the first half of December. A delayed commencement of the rains characterised the 2023/2024 season. As a result, there has been an unprecedented lack of rainfall at the beginning of the rainy season in numerous regions of Manicaland, marking the driest start in the past four decades.
“The dry conditions negatively impacted the national planting area, significantly reducing the area dedicated to cultivating food and other crops. Most farmers planted crops in late December following significant rainfall across the country,” reads part of the report.
