- As the hunger season sets in throughout
the region, those households identified as food insecure (or at risk for
part of the year) in the May/June 2008 VAC assessments have already exhausted
their meager food reserves, and some are reportedly employing extreme coping
strategies, such as skipping meals and consumption of wild foods to survive.
Although the situation is being mitigated through emergency assistance,
food access problems persist in some instances due to inadequate resourcing
of food assistance interventions and logistical problems in distribution.
Scaling up operations between now and the next harvest to cater for the
growing case load as food insecurity levels rise is proving a challenge.
It is critical to secure additional donor support to offset the current
commodity shortfalls and expected pipeline breaks that WFP and other humanitarian
agencies now face.
- While food security conditions in the region (outside Zimbabwe and affected localized areas elsewhere) are generally stable for this time of year, dwindling food supplies at household and national levels are exerting upward pressure on prices, curtailing household food access. Extremely high price levels of basic staple foods are being reported in local markets throughout the region, and prices are above last year and the past 5-year average. To mitigate the situation, governments and their cooperating partners must accelerate import deliveries, which remain low, and improve internal distribution to improve access and availability to both commercial and humanitarian food. Close monitoring of food security conditions to update and inform decision makers of necessary response measures is critical.
- The rainfall season is currently being established in southern Africa, and significant rainfall was received in the first two dekads of November. Although rainfall had been somewhat sporadic in most areas in the month of October, the November rains seem to have ushered in the crop growing season over most parts of the region, except for central Mozambique and adjacent parts of eastern Zimbabwe and southern Malawi, where effective planting rains have yet to start. A dry spell at the end of November in southern Mozambique could meanwhile put recently planted crops at risk or reduce germination rates. Many farmers have taken advantage of the November rains and have started field activities, mainly land preparation and planting. Although inputs are reported to be available in most countries (except Zimbabwe), high prices (especially of seeds and fertilizer) are reportedly constraining the amounts that farmers (especially the poor) can access. The overall impact could potentially reduce harvests due to lower crop yields and reduced area planted. It is critical that adequate inputs be availed to all farmers, especially to vulnerable households, so that they can plant on time, taking advantage of the rainfall in the face of an uncertain region's seasonal forecast.