1.5 million face food insecurity in Mozambique

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1.5 million face food insecurity in Mozambique

7:21 CAT | 04 Apr 2016

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Almost 1.5 million people in Mozambique are now affected by food insecurity, caused essentially by the drought hitting the southern and central regions of the country, Antonio Paulo, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, announced in Maputo on Friday.

Speaking to AIM, at the end of a meeting of the government’s Disaster Management Technical Council (CTGC), Paulo said the situation was serious, and likely to get worse. The rainy season officially ended on 31 March. No more significant rainfall can be expected until October. As food reserves run out in the coming months, more people are likely to fall into food insecurity.

Adding up the numbers provided by local authorities, Paulo put the number of people affected by food insecurity at 1,493,928. Of these people, 315,000 are currently receiving food aid. That number seems certain to rise, since drought affected rural households will be unable to produce anything until the next rainy season.

There was some rain in southern Mozambique in March – but nowhere near enough to rescue this year’s harvest. “The rain which fell recently was only satisfactory for livestock”, said Paulo. “Farming did not benefit from it”.

In terms of the numbers of people affected, the provinces worst hit by the drought are Tete and Sofala in the centre of the country and Gaza in the south. Paulo put the number of people affected by drought in Tete at 343,413, in Sofala at 328,002 and in Gaza at 220,282.

Source: AIM