Food Security Policies and Nutrition in Zimbabwe; Case Study of Mashonaland Central Province: 2000 To 2015.

Abstract

The paper examines the role of food security policies that have been inaugurated or put in place to ensure food security and nutrition in Zimbabwe since 2000 till date. Such an idea has been necessitated culminating from Zimbabwe experiencing severe food shortage of crop and meet production due to continued early termination of rains (droughts), effects of the fast track land reform, banning of humanitarian aid societies, reduced socio-economic development, increased mortality and mobility among others. The research aims to explore why Zimbabwe has not been able to cope with the pending crisis, what has been the causes of lack of foreign currency or economic turn down and unsteadiness of payments. It aims to assess the customary political and economic factors that constrained the government’s ability to respond promptly and effectively to food security and nutrition problems. It also examining possible results of food insecurity exacerbated by government’s failure to put in place good policy framework. This paper is mainly anchored on a mixture of stakeholders’ perspectives and views of main factors behind the reality that triggered a food surplus country into a food deficit country requiring the intervention of world food programmes to feed close to 9 million people. The research will be qualitative in nature and targets Mashonaland Central Province as an area of case study. To be collated are the views and perspectives of selected stakeholders both in the public and private sector who are relevant facing these challenges. Also the research aims to put into consideration the secondary sources already published. This paper can therefore be used as a panacea to the problems affecting the Zimbabwean citizens in different provinces, coming up with measures and policies that arrest these challenges