MUTARE– Thousands of livestock has perished as pangs of impending drought grip some districts of Manicaland amid increased calls for food relief.
Government officials have assured that they remain committed to providing food relief to citizens as the drought situation remains perilous in the province.
This was said by Provincial Administrator, Mr Fungai Mbetsa, who also revealed that thousands of households are in need of food relief in the province.
He said while the recent rains have provided a ray of hope for livestock pasture, it was unlikely to boost yields as some crops have been declared as total write offs.
“There is hunger in the province and we are just hopeful that this situation will be arrested by the recent rains, which we feel were quite substantial to at least boost some crops which were under stress.
“As a province were are concerned because there are areas like Buhera, Chipinge and Chimanimani which are hard hit by this situation. However because of the rains we expect a reasonable harvest,” he said.
Mbetsa also revealed that over three thousand herd of cattle had succumbed to drought due to lack of pasture in the province.
He said Chipinge district was the hardest hit, with Buhera, Chimanimani and Makoni districts also part of the areas where livestock has been lost due to limited grazing pasture.
“The province has lost a total of 3200 herd of cattle due to lack of grazing pasture, 2500 in Chipinge alone, in Buhera it was 500, Chimanimani 148 and surprisingly in Makoni there were 161 cattle which died because of this drought,” he said.
Mbetsa said government is providing monthly relief packages to Buhera district which was identified under the ZIMVAC survey as part of 30 other districts receiving government aid.
He said while the World Food Programs had also chipped in to assist vulnerable families in the same district, more aid was needed in other districts of the province.
“Food relief is being provided on a monthly basis to specially targeted vulnerable families, we are concentrating on the driest wards with bad harvests, also the World Food Programme is also distributing in some wards of Buhera.
“At least 42 900 households are receiving 50kg per family under these relief programmes,” he said, adding that, “However this is not enough and we are appealing to government to chip in and provide more assistance because the maize being distributed is last year’s ration and we expect districts like Chipinge to be added on the beneficiaries.”
Mbetsa also said due to sporadic rains the expected provincial average maize yield was likely to be lower than the usual half a tonne per hectare.
“Usually we get an average of 0.5 tonnes per hectare in the province but due to the sporadic nature of the rains we are likely to have lower than average yields in the province,” he said.
Meanwhile the District Administrator for Mutare rural Mr Sigauke has said there is an urgent need for government to chip in with more food assistance as some areas have not yet received rains.
He said the current food relief was only targeting 15 of 36 wards a figure he said was falling below the needed assistance.
“There is need for government to chip and assist people in areas like Bocha which have not yet received rains even as we speak.
“We are receiving distress calls from all areas because the relief provided to 15 of the 36 wards is not enough,” he said.
Sigauke also added that grain from the Grain Marketing Board has not been disbursed as was the norm further exacerbating the dire situation.
“We have also not received our annual rations from the Grain Marketing Board and we are hoping that this will come to provide further relief because this has added further distress to the people,” he said.
