Feature: In rural Zimbabwe, hunger begins to gnaw as drought wipes out crops

Zimbabwean peasant Joseph Mukwapuna looks blankly into the clear sky longing for the rains to fall, but a heavy cloud engulfs his spirit as he knows full well that the season is almost over and that any rain that falls will not do much to change his situation.

The father of three stays in rural Midlands Province, which was ravaged by the El Nino induced drought that left close to 4 million people in the province, or a quarter of Zimbabwe's population, vulnerable to food insecurity, according to government estimates.

The area where Mukwapuna lives did not receive meaningful rains until the end of February -- a time most crops should be maturing.

"Most crops were a complete write-off. This has not happened here in a very long time. We always get enough to feed ourselves," he said.

Pointing around the homestead he had visited for a traditional ceremony, Mukwapuna said during good seasons, the homestead would be having a good maize crop at this time of the year.

"We had a master farmer here. Everyone envied his crop. But look around you, there is nothing to show for his mastery. The drought destroyed everything. Now we are looking forward to the government and donors to assist us in our time of need," he said.

In February, President Robert Mugabe declared a "state of disaster" for agriculture in areas affected by the El Nino, which covers about 90 percent of the country. The government has since launched an appeal for 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in food aid to avert mass starvation.

The country needs 1.4 million tonnes of maize for consumption every year. The output is estimated to drop to just 700,000 tonnes this year.

Labor and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira in March said the government had about 91,000 tonnes of maize in strategy stocks, only enough to last three months.

The state-owned Grain Marketing Board is helping out by selling maize to vulnerable families at 15 dollars per 50 kg bag while others get it at 22.5 dollars. A local non-governmental organization is also providing assistance to the most vulnerable families with 50 kg of maize per family plus 6 U.S. dollars per head.

However, the assistance has been erratic with beneficiaries having last received their allocations two months ago.

A lot of villages are also not happy that the NGO selects very few people for assistance, usually two, saying that this had sown seeds of hate and discontent within the communities.

"In a whole village with more than 20 homesteads they just select up to two families and many people are complaining that they are being left out," said Crispen Dick, a 37-year-old villager.

The Zimbabwean economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which generates 30 percent of export earnings and contributes 19 percent to the country's GDP. About 70 percent of the population still survive on farming and related industries.

Youth officer Lawrence Mukwapuna said in a failed agricultural season, rural young people started self-help projects such as brick molding and breaking huge boulders to make quarry stones for building in a bid to raise money to buy food.

Some had resorted to illegal logging to barter firewood for food with street vendors.

"We know it is illegal but we have no choice. We have to make ends meet," said Mukwapuna.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), pasture conditions and water availability across the country had improved, particularly in the south following the late rains that fell in March, but the majority of the drought-related crop damage is irreversible at this point in the season.

WFP had available resources to reach some 480,000 people in 13 districts in April, but due to limited funding, it would be unable to continue providing assistance in the remaining seven districts.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also said as of mid-April its local offices had not received any funds against the 2016 Humanitarian appeal of 21 million dollars, and had availed resources worth 688,000 dollars to continue its response interventions to the drought.

Interventions would focus on supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged women and children to withstand, adapt to and recover from the current food and nutrition insecurity, it added.

UNICEF warned in March that malnutrition was on the rise in Zimbabwe following the drought and revealed that nearly 33,000 children in the country were in urgent need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

Other than the UN agencies, China has committed to donate 24.6 million U.S. dollars worth of rice as "emergency food assistance" to Zimbabwe. The United States Agency for International Development soon followed suit to commit another 20 million U.S. dollars. The EU also allocated about 4.1 million euros for Zimbabwe to respond to the El Nino.

Like Mukwapuna, thousands of Zimbabwean families pin their hopes on a government without funds and a donor community that is also struggling to mitigate the effects of the drought.

The late rains eased the situation, however, but not for the peasants, Mukwapuna said.

"The situation is bad, and while we may say the cattle have something to eat for now as the grass turns green, our own tummies remain empty," he added. Endit