At least 80 000 people have registered to join the food-for-work programme in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province in the wake of acute food shortages, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Monday.
Government introduced the food-for-work programme in Masvingo last week following poor harvests in most parts of the province.
Masvingo Provincial Governor and Resident Minister Titus Maluleke said that Government had introduced the programme to ameliorate the effects of looming food shortages in the province.
Chivi and Mwenezi districts registered to join the programme after reports that about 40 percent of the province’s population will be in need of food relief before year end.
He said more districts were expected to enlist soon.
“We have already started the food- for-work programme in Chivi and Mwenezi, which are more vulnerable in terms of food availability and we have since registered thousands of people who are receiving cash every month under the programme.
“As a province, we expect that before the end of this year, the number of people in need of food aid will balloon to about 40
percent and we expect the figure to rise. Chivi and Mwenezi are in more urgent need of food relief at the moment since the districts recorded poor harvests last year,” Maluleke said.
He added that in the first quarter of next year, the number of people in need of food aid could rise to about 80 percent of the population.
Masvingo is believed to have a population of over 1.2 million people, meaning 1 million people will require food relief in the first four months of next year. - Sapa