About 3mn people remained short of food in Southern Africa as a result of poverty and HIV/Aids despite recent good harvests, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) reported during a one day conference held in Johannesburg, where representatives from 10 countries announced preliminary agricultural production levels for the 2006/7 consumption year.
WFP executive director James Morris said that although the region, plagued by drought in recent years, had now seen bumper crops, it paradoxically made the task of the UN agency more difficult.
“Good harvests do not necessarily mean people have enough to eat,” Morris said in a statement issued in Johannesburg.
“Food and good nutrition are crucial in battling against HIV/Aids but it is very tough to convince the international community of the complexity and depth of the pandemic in this region, especially when people’s misery is masked by green fields and good harvests,” he said.
Many people in the region will remain dependent on donor assistance because they were unable to grow enough food to feed themselves until the next harvest or because they could not afford to buy food available at markets and shops.Over the last five years the WFP has had to assist up to 13mn people left hungry by erratic weather, poor government policies, economic stagnation and shortages of seeds and fertilisers.
The poor are caught in a vicious cylce of poverty.
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