World Food Programme (WFP) says more than two million Zimbabweans are on the cusp of starvation and that it has launched$331.5m aid appeal to help the southern African country recover from a devastating drought.

The WFP executive director David Beasley, said on Tuesday that 2.3 million people in rural Zimbabwe were in "crisis emergency mode" and need food aid now.

The El Nino-induced drought cut the maize harvest by half in Zimbabwe, and President Emmerson Mnangagw has declared it a national disaster. 

The drought comes with Zimbabweans enduring a severe economic crisis of prices of staples such as sugar, cooking oil and rice, have more than doubled since June, jacking up inflation to more than 175 percent.

Beasley said those in need of emergency food aid in rural Zimbabwe, would increase to 5.5 million by next year.

The government estimates another 2.2 million people in urban areas also require food aid, bringing the total to 7.7 million, more than half of the country's population.