ZIMBABWE is currently battling against a double whammy of rising housing demand and food shortages.

In its report in July, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) cast a gloomy outlook on the country’s food situation, indicating that most Zimbabwean households were stalked by hunger.

With urbanisation accelerating at breakneck speed, Zimbabwe’s vast prime farmland devoted for food production has been converted into residential suburbs by corrupt land barons.

This has triggered a steep decline in food output while scores of rural folks have flocked to urban areas where millions of citizens remain stuck on the housing waiting list. Food sources are being decimated.

The situation is dire.

Latest and available figures indicate that Zimbabwe’s housing backlog stands at 1,5 million houses.

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The twin devils of biting hunger and inadequate housing staring Zimbabwe in the face have been occasioned by the chaotic parcelling of land and haphazard developments on the same.

In recent times, unscrupulous housing cooperatives have been sanctioned by authorities after fleecing desperate home seekers of their money. In the process, numerous “decent” irregular houses have been razed down, condemning citizens to homelessness and, of course, hunger.

Yet Zimbabwe’s solution to addressing the deep-seated problem of food shortages and inadequate housing lies in the strategic utilisation of land.

Land is a finite resource which means it must be effectively used to address the challenges of diminishing farmland and a ballooning housing backlog.

This month, this publication, in an interview with the Pan-African lender Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) chief business officer for Investment and Advisory Services Gibson Mapfidza, unravelled what Zimbabwe strategically needs to do to extricate itself from the quagmire of a crippling housing and hunger crisis.

It requires the sound utilisation of land bearing in mind that it is a non-renewable resource.

Partly, Mapfidza underlined that the haphazard parcelling out of farmland is akin to biting the hand that feeds you. It is disastrous.

Here is what the ShafDB official said in that insightful interview.

“Zimbabwe is one of the many countries in Africa experiencing an above average rate of urbanisation. The last reported housing backlog of 1,5 million has been growing as the annual housing targets are currently not being met.”

In his final delivery, Mapfidza reasoned that Zimbabwe must preserve its farming land by adopting vertical housing models.

He added: “The country will also need to rethink housing and adopt vertical developments as land is a finite resource.”

Undoubtedly, building up will trim the housing deficit and preserve land for food production.