The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday it had been forced to reduce its food rations to millions of hungry people in Zimbabwe due to a lack of funding. In an update on its feeding programme in Zimbabwe, the WFP said it had been forced to cut its cereal rations from 12 kilograms to 10 kilograms per person per month and its pulse rations from 1.8 kilogram to 1 kilogram per month in order to make the food go further. Close to 4 million Zimbabweans are unable to adequately feed themselves as drought and disastrous policies by President Robert Mugabe's government robs the land of all productive capacity. By January, the number of needy is expected to climb to 5.1 million people, or 45 per cent of the population, the UN says. The WFP fed 2 million people country in October and hopes to double its distributions to reach twice that number in November, the agency said in a release. But unless it receives new donations the agency will run out of food by January, "just when the crisis is reaching its peak," the agency warned. A severe economic crisis has left the government and people of Zimbabwe without money for seeds or fertilizer, making it very difficult to grow food. Of the 2 million people the WFP fed through non-governmental organizations last month, around 1.4 million were rural dwellers that have been affected by what aid agencies estimate to be the worst harvest in up to 50 years. The next harvest is only in April. The other 570,000 beneficiaries were "chronically vulnerable" - a term that usually describes the elderly, the very young and the sick, including those infected with HIV/AIDS. At the beginning of October, the WFP launched an appeal for 141 million dollars to fund its operations in Zimbabwe for the next six months. A month later, it is still 140 myllio # 1 wsZxo~t.LH :FP needs additional donations urgently since it takes between 6-8 weeks to transform a cash contribution into food on a beneficiary's table," the agency said. The latest appeal by the WFP - the agency that is always counted on to feed Zimbabweans in tough times - comes two days after yet another summit of southern African leaders failed to revive the country's moribund power-sharing agreement. Mugabe has vowed to form a government soon without the biggest party in parliament, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), after failing to agree with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on whose party should get what portfolios in a unity government. The unity deal is seen as the only hope of pulling Zimbabwe out of its current quagmire. Without the MDC in government, Western donors will provide only minimum aid and investment to the country. In the meantime, some people have resorted to eating wild fruit, grass and rotten food to survive.
