Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortages in four years following a drought and poor harvest, the UN World Food Programme has said September 3rd. Hunger is on the rise in Zimbabwe with an estimated 2.2 million people – one in four of the rural population – expected to need food assistance during the pre-harvest period early next year.

The latest food shortages were due to bad weather, high seed and fertilizer costs and projections that food prices will climb because of the poor maize harvest. The agency said it was working with the government and other international aid organizations to provide food assistance to about a fifth of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people from October until the next crop harvest in March/April 2014.

Zimbabwe used to be a major agricultural producer and economic power, and boasted the name of “bread basket of Africa”. However, food shortage happened frequently since 2001 due to long-running drought, grain output reduction, high unemployment rate, agricultural re-structuring, high AIDS infection rate, etc. WFP said in early 2009 that, about half the population needed assistance. Although the end of “hyper inflation” had taken a favorable turn for the economy, yet, the under investment and high rural unemployment rate didn’t take a good turn; no foreign investment is made in Zimbabwe agriculture.