Maputo — About 3,000 people in the Dombe administrative post, in the central Mozambican province of Manica, are facing hunger because they lost many of the crops they had planted when Cyclone Idai struck central Mozambique on 14 March.
Extensive areas planted with grain and vegetables were devastated, plunging hundreds of households into food insecurity.
The head of the Dombe administrative post, Tomas Razao, told AIM that intervention by the government and its partners is urgent to alleviate the suffering of the population.
In the Mabaia area, he said, people are surviving only on wild roots and seasonal fruits. The cyclone came on top of a period of drought, and the combined effect of these climatic phenomena have provoked food shortages in the region.
Razao said the local government is seeking public-private partnerships to solve the problem of food insecurity in Dombe.
“The population is committed to the 2019-2020 agricultural campaign in which we are hoping for good production”, he said. “We are providing seeds, while we wait for the rains to start. On the other hand, with the support of partners we are promoting various actions such as Food for Work”.
But this initiative, he added, does not cover all the people in Dombe who are facing food insecurity.
“The people are committed to seeking solutions”, he said. “One of the alternatives is to bank on short cycle, drought resistant crops. Some are producing in the low-lying areas on the banks of the main rivers in Dombe, and have begun to bring in some harvests”.
Dombe was the part of Manica most hit by cyclone Idai. 70,000 people live here, and most of them are farmers.
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