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WFP gets US$7m funding for Zim aid
THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday received US$7 million in new funding from Switzerland to assist families living in urban areas to strengthen their skills and ability to cope in the face of economic and climate shocks.
This comes as 5,5 million rural dwellers are expected to be food insecure by next month which has been expedited by the current Covid-19 pandemic that has seen Zimbabwe in lockdown since March last year.
The WPF estimates that a further 2,3 million urban dwellers are also food insecure which has seen the agency providing grocery vouchers and cash transfers to over 300 000 people in cities.
Gvt to get tough with agric inputs abusers
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HE government says it is consulting with the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to institute jail sentences or more punitive penalties for farmers abusing, misusing or selling inputs accessed via the Command Agriculture or Presidential schemes.
This follows reports that unscrupulous farmers enlisted on the schemes in Binga and Gokwe North were selling fertilisers to middle men, who then resale the inputs in Zambia.
Inputs dealers were reportedly buying cotton bulk blend fertiliser, compound D and top-dressing bags of fertilisers for US$7 and reselling for at least US$20 in Harare or Zambia.
Locusts, armyworm risk for Zimbabwe
By Emmerson Njanjamangezi
THE Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) has warned that African migratory locusts and fall armyworm may hamper the 2020/21 agriculture season output.
The risk of locusts, according to Fewsnet, is further worsened by the fact ‘the majority of maize crops are at the emergence to early vegetative stage’ where any pests or disease outbreak would cause wholesome damage. The African migratory locusts pose an ominous danger to most crops in the country given the damage it caused in East Africa, particularly Kenya.
Locusts are the most destructive migratory pest in the world. Ever since swarms of locusts from Yemen invaded Ethiopia and Somalia in June 2019, the pests have swept through Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.