Hauliers gear up for emergency relief programme

É as Swazi crops fail again James Hall MBABANE - Road and rail freight hauliers should prepare for another year of emergency food relief supplies, suggests a national crop assessment being carried out this week by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Widespread crop failures characterise the eastern lowveld, where currently 250 000 people are without food. “We are disappointed with the weather again. The rains stopped just at the time when the maize crops (the Swazi staple food) were maturing,” Mostafa Iman, FAO’s representative in Swaziland, told FTW. Nearly a third of the population depends on food aid from international donor assistance. Drought is just one reason for food shortages. Government land policy is also to blame, aid workers say. Famine has been averted because of good early warning data, a corruption free distribution system, and Swazis’ communal culture that ensures that no one is left behind.