Rome (Fides Service) - In Zimbabwe 6.7 million (49% of the population) are suffering because of a serious food shortage. Most of them (88%) live in rural areas and they include 500,000 workers who used to work on farms owned by white Zimbabweans which were confiscated by the government and distributed among government supporters. In fact the food crisis is due precisely to this Government land policy plus exceptional drought last year . The international community is intervening to help the people while it wants also to isolate President Mugabe because of his policy of repression of opposition. Mugabe incites his supporters to take the land of the white farmers and this means he is encouraging racism which is not good for Africa. It is true that the question of land distribution has been ignored for too long, but it cannot be solved with violence. The government's controversial land policy has weakened the agricultural commercial sector, a mainstay of Zimbabwe's economy both for domestic food needs and for export. Consequently many farm workers and former land owners now have neither a home nor land. The government's policy has destroyed the commercial farm sector breaking up the large farms into small pieces forced to practice subsistence farming. Instead of taking this path the government should have promoted the created a food industry of high intensity labour to transform local farm products. This would have created new jobs for the black community and new sources of income for the country.
In addition to this there is the tragedy of AIDS which also strikes mainly rural communities. More than 35% of the people in Zimbabwe is HIV positive and the illness reduces labour forces. This means that farmers are forced to change from high intensity labour cultivation such as cearls, to shoe which require less labour such as tubers which have however less energetic value and this aggravates the food problem.
The country has food reserves sufficient for 3.3 million for a few months. This is why since October 2002 the World Food programme was assisted 2.2 million. This number grew to 3 million at the end of 2002 and it is expected that this year WFP will assist 6.7 people suffering from under nourishment.
Here is a table shows how farm production in 2002 was less than 1999.

The worst hit districts are at least 16 (out of 57) where between 64 and 82% of the people are seriously under nourished. These districts are in Matabeleland, Central Midlands, Masavingo province and in the Zambesi valley. These districts partially lost at least two harvests in the past three years.
To meet the crisis the government has imported so far more than 788,000 tons of maize reducing the initial deficit of 1.65 million tons of maize to 829,000. So far the government has covered 82% of food import costs, while donations from various international humanitarian organisations have supplied 14% for a total 108,000 tons of food.
For the new sowing season this Spring, farmers will need seed and fertilisers. The end of the food crisis in Zimbabwe depends on government policy. In fact as long as the government continues to help only its own supporters it will be impossible to re-launch the farming sector which is the only way to free the country from the grip of hunger. LM (Fides Service 20/2/2003 EM lines 66 Words: 613)