U.N. says 5 million risk hunger in Zimbabwe

By Stephen Brown

ROME (Reuters) - More than 5 million people in Zimbabwe risk going hungry by early next year as grain output tumbles due to bad weather, lack of seeds and fertiliser, fuel costs and poor grain prices for farmers, says a U.N. report.

The food agency report released on Wednesday urged the government of Zimbabwe and international community to ensure emergency aid to farms to tackle chronic shortages that could affect 5.1 million people in the country by January next year.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme estimated 2.04 million Zimbabweans risked hunger in coming months, "peaking at about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009".

The report saw maize output in 2008 falling 28 percent from last year to 575,000 tonnes and domestic cereal supply down 40 percent at 848,000 tonnes.

It said a major factor was unprofitable prices for crops controlled by the government's grain Marketing Board and called for trading to be opened up to private traders "to ensure that cereals can be imported and moved quickly to areas of need".

Zimbabwe has been grappling with food shortages since 2001 and has the world's highest inflation at 165,000 percent. But its 84-year-old leader Robert Mugabe blames Western sanctions for this economic collapse.

The United Nations has accused Harare of putting people at risk of increased suffering by banning independent foreign aid groups trying to deal with the food shortage and economic crisis that has driven millions of Zimbabweans abroad to seek work.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since independence in 1980, accuses international aid groups of campaigning for the opposition in the June 27 presidential run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai, who won a first-round vote in March.