WFP slashes food aid to Zambia

Good harvests mean surplus maize yields
THE UN World Food Programme (WFP) has slashed by half its Zambia feeding programme thanks to the country’s good rains and surplus maize yields. Jo Woods, WFP spokeswoman in Zambia, said the relief agency had reduced to 600 000 from 1.1 million the number of Zambians it would feed in 2006 because many families affected by drought last year had managed to produce enough food this season. According to Reuters, farmers’ groups say they expect a surplus of 400 000 tonnes this year as the country’s white maize consumption has dropped to 800 000 tonnes from about one million tonnes. One reason for the drop in consumption is that many people in rural areas have switched to cassava, a staple food for more than 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Rich in calories, highly drought tolerant, thriving in poor soils and easy to store in the ground, cassava is popularly called “the staff of life” for the poorest of the poor. The state Food Reserve Agency (FRA) said in April that Zambia expected its white maize output to rise to 1.2 million tonnes in 2005/06 from 866 000 tonnes the previous season, mostly because of good rains. The WFP will purchase all maize for its feeding programmes from local farmers. “We are looking at feeding 600 000 people in Zambia and all the food requirements will be purchased locally,” Woods said. This will put the brakes on South African maize exports to Zambia and will in turn affect business for the freight industry that has moved food aid as a fill-in while copper exports have been in a lull. The WFP will mainly target HIV infected people, school children, pregnant mothers, malnourished children and people in drought-prone areas, yet to recover from last year’s drought, and those in places that were affected by floods, she said.