HARARE, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe, battling chronic food shortages and astronomical inflation, is set to receive 350,000 tonnes of maize from the World Food Programme (WFP), state media reported on Wednesday.

Millions in the southern African country are ravaged by an economic crisis critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, such as the seizure of commercial farms to resettle landless blacks, which ruined the agriculture sector.

The WFP and other aid agencies have said up to 5 million people -- almost half the population -- might need food assistance by early next year.

The Herald newspaper quoted the WFP's representative in Zimbabwe, Bahre Gessesse, saying his agency was already feeding millions and would provide an additional 350,000 tonnes of the staple maize to April 2009.

"In October alone, we reached two million people while we expect to reach out to about 2.5 million people in November and the number is expected to rise," Gessesse told the newspaper.

President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to form a unity government under a Sept. 15 power-sharing deal seen as the best chance for rescuing the economy.

Government officials say Zimbabwe produced just over 800,000 tonnes of maize during the last farming season, against national demand of about 2 million tonnes. Zimbabwe has failed to import the shortfall due to foreign currency shortages.

A former regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe has failed to produce enough food to feed itself since 2001, after Mugabe ordered the seizure of white-owned farms by blacks.

The country's agricultural woes have fuelled an economic meltdown marked by an official inflation rate of 231 million percent, the world's highest, and chronic shortages of basic goods. (Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Michael Georgy)

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