Despite an improved harvest in the 2005-2006 season, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in October that some 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe would need food aid until the harvest next summer.

The WFP's representative in Harare, Kevin Farrell, said a joint exercise involving the government, U.N. agencies and non-governmental organisations had found that more than a tenth of the population required assistance.

Zimbabwe's annual cereal requirement is about 1.9 million tonnes of the staple maize grain. The rainfall season since November 2005 has been normal to above normal, and the latest maize harvest has risen to 1.2 million tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Factoring in government predictions that plot-farmers would harvest almost 330,000 tonnes, there is still a deficit of about 395,000 tonnes.

Commercial cereal imports have been severely hampered by the country's shortage of foreign exchange. Fewsnet also points out that severe transport problems experienced by the parastatal Grain Marketing Board (GMB) have meant that grain has not been effectively moved from areas of surplus to areas of deficit.

The continuing failure of government economic policies - such as the reduction of state-subsidised rural credit and failed land reforms - has placed intolerable pressure on smallholder farmers.

This has combined with fuel shortages, hyper-inflation, high unemployment and HIV/AIDS to decimate the livelihoods of both rural and urban Zimbabweans.

According to the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among adults is reported to have dropped to 21.3 percent in 2005, but the disease continues to kill 3,000 Zimbabweans per week.

A 2005 government campaign to destroy illegal housing - Operation Restore Order/Murambatsvina - has also displaced already vulnerable and destitute families across the country. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum estimates that almost 65,000 families have lost their homes.

East Africa hunger

West Africa Hunger

Southern Africa hunger

African hunger: Myths and realities

Key statistics

Population	13.1 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2006)
Proportion of malnourished in total population	44 percent (ActionAid)
Life expectancy at birth	36.9 years (U.N. Development Programme)
Number of people in need of food assistance	1.4 million (WFP)

Last reviewed date: 2006-10-26