UN agencies barred from food assessment for ‘political reasons’
HARARE, 16 March 2011 (IRIN): UN agencies and other non-government stakeholders are being barred by Zimbabwe’s agricultural minister from participating in food and crop assessment surveys on the basis of “national security”.
– The issue of crop and food assessments is a national security matter that should be treated with the utmost caution and exclusivity, hence our decision as government to exclude outsiders from the surveys. UN agencies in particular are not welcome because they send out negative information about the country. We do not want to have politics in food issues, agriculture minister Joseph Made, a member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, told IRIN.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), with the government and other agencies, have in the past compiled crop and food assessments to determine national food availability, forecast any possible shortages and initiate plans to cover shortfalls.
In June 2008, during a year that witnessed violent presidential and parliamentary elections, the FAO/WFP crop assessment initially forecast that 5,1 million people would require food aid in the first quarter of 2009; this subsequently increased to seven million.
– The first crop assessment has already been carried out but we are withholding the findings because they have to be presented to cabinet first. However, we are knee-deep in the districts and provinces doing the second round of assessments and we don’t want to do a half-baked job, Made said.
He said areas had been identified that were critically short of maize, the staple (grundnæringsmidlet), and “we are already moving grain to those places, to ensure no one starves”.
David Mfote, from the FAO Zimbabwe country office, told IRIN by email:
“Unfortunately, we are not in a position to give you answers [to questions relating to the crop and livestock assessments], mainly because as for this year, government carried out the first crop assessment on its own. The same is also applying for the second crop assessment. As a result, we have not been able to travel to the countryside to assess the crop situation.”
Dry spell
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