Swazi food crisis pumps up transport demand

MBABANE – The local transport industry is gearing up to save lives by hauling essential food aid as Swaziland’s humanitarian crisis worsens. The World Food Programme (WFP) said 2007 would be the worst year on record in terms of food scarcity. Sporadic drought conditions that have hit parts of the country for a decade became nationwide and unrelenting this year, affecting 80% of the country's staple food crop, maize. WFP and other humanitarian groups are already bringing in replacement maize. About one quarter of Swaziland’s approximately one million population is currently dependent on some form of food assistance. Swaziland Railways and road haulier Chrisilda Transport have found food shipment jobs increasing in recent years. The metric tonnage of food required will be determined when the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sends a crop assessment team from Rome next month to see how much if any of this year’s crop can be salvaged. Locally, the price of maize has risen from R1 250 for one metric tonne at the beginning of the year to R2 300 today. Minister of Agriculture Mtiti Fakudze said the price would rise to R3 000 by winter.