New Zimbabwe
19 March 2012
Zimbabwe faces a huge grain deficit this year after a third of the current maize crop was written off due to a prolonged dry spell, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said.
Made has halted maize sales from the country’s strategic grain reserves after a state crop assessment showed that a third of the 1.689 million hectares put under maize had been declared a write-off.
Although the production of the staple maize has rebounded from its low of 400,000 tonnes in 2007/08 to 1.35 million tonnes in 2010/11, the country still struggles to meet its annual grain consumption of nearly 2 million tonnes.
Zimbabwe is likely to resort to grain imports, although there were fears that regional suppliers South Africa, Zambia and Malawi may not be in a position to export.
“There are indications that our neighbouring countries are likely to have grain shortages. We are calling farmers to… see how much in terms of grain they are likely to deliver,” Made said.
Jonathan Chifuna, a senior forecaster with the Meteorological Services Department says the dry spell experienced in some parts of Zimbabwe since December was caused by tropical cyclone Erena which hit neighbouring Mozambique.
The worst hit areas are the Matabeleland South and North provinces, parts of the Midlands, parts of Manicaland and parts of Masvingo.
But in contrasting fortunes, some parts of the country including Harare, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central received more than average rainfall. Farmers in these provinces complained about too much rainfall which had turned their crops yellow due to sublingual watering.
Senator David Coltart (Khumalo), said: “We had great rain in large parts of Matabeleland last Friday, but the crops are gone. We need it to continue raining for ground water and cattle generally.â€