Zimbabwe : AGRICULTURAL COLLAPSE RUINS ECONOMY

Zimbabwe : AGRICULTURAL COLLAPSE RUINS ECONOMY

Hit by drought, HIV/AIDS and an economic meltdown, Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst humanitarian crisis since independence.

= Average life expectancy 42.5 years
= Drought hits already devastated agriculture
= World's highest inflation

Twenty years ago the country was hailed as an African success story and dubbed the "breadbasket" of southern Africa. Now it has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, according to the World Health Organisation.

Around 4 million people - more than a third of the population - were receiving food aid at the start of 2008 after yet another year of severe drought.

Farming is the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy, but agriculture has been crippled by the combined effects of drought, controversial government land reforms and the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping sub-Saharan Africa.

Zimbabwe is struggling to cope with a large number of internally displaced people (IDPs), estimated at 570,000, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Many were uprooted during the government's widely condemned demolition of swathes of urban settlements in a mid-2005 crackdown on illegal shantytowns.

Farm workers moving around the country in search of work have also swelled the number of displaced.

And with the economy in shreds, unemployment is sky high. Galloping inflation - the highest in the world - has pushed up prices, making basic foodstuffs, fuel, health and school fees unaffordable for many people.

Key facts:

Estimated life expectancy in 2005 42 years (women), 43 years (men)
( WHO 2007)
Percentage of population malnourished 45 percent ( WFP)
No. displaced 570,000 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2007)
No. who lost incomes/homes in 2005 state 700,000 (Source: U.N.)
Percentage of people living on less than $2 a day 83 percent ( WFP)