Famine in Zimbabwe January 27, 2003 INTRODUCTION The current production shortfalls in agriculture in Southern Africa are primarily due to persistent low levels of rainfall over the last two years. In some countries of the region the lack of disaster preparedness in terms of food security has led to a situation where they have to rely heavily on the importation of food and food aid in order to feed the population. Yet the sheer catastrophic proportions the famine has taken in Zimbabwe where half of the 14 Mio population is depending on food aid for survival in the coming months is due to policy factors directly linked to the opportunistic and economically irresponsible land reform pro­gramme of the government. The way this forcefully imposed agrarian reform has affected agriculture's eco­nomic performance can best be illustrated by the drop in output in tobacco pro­duction. Whereas in 2000 Zimbabwe produced well above 200 million kilograms of tobacco, the estimate for 2002 is around 80 million kilograms. Tobacco being a drought resistant plant these figures dispel all possible inference about the rela­tive importance of natural and man-made factors in this disaster. The fact that this year’s rains are still far below average and that during this planting season only 60% of the surface that was under exploitation last year is being farmed should make all alarm bells ring. On a recent visit to Zimbabwe James Morris, UN special envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, commented to members of the diplomatic corps on the need of even more food aid once the meagre crop of this year will have been consumed. In light of the persistent accusations about political manipulation of the food aid distribution by the ruling ZANU-PF party future provision of assistance will become even more of a political issue in Europe. 1