Maize crop down 35 percent: Agritex
10/01/2012 00:00:00
by Godfrey Marawanyika I Bloomberg
ZIMBABWE planted 247,000 hectares of maize from November to January, down
from 379,993 hectares in same period a year earlier as a result of late
rains, the Agricultural Extension Services said.
The country’s farmers planted 130,944 hectares of sorghum and other small
grains, compared with 136,131 hectares, the government organisation, known
as Agritex, said in a crop report handed out in Harare, the capital.
“It looks like this year is going to be a bad year, in terms of crop
output,” Seiso Moyo, the deputy agriculture minister, said in a phone
interview from his office in Harare.
“We will inform government at the end of this month or early next month on
what needs to be done, but indications are that it will not be a good year.”
The United Nations said December 9 it was seeking $268 million to help feed
as many as 1.45 million people in the country this year.
“The humanitarian situation has improved over the past couple of years,”
Alain Noudéhou, UN humanitarian coordinator in Zimbabwe, said last month.
“However, challenges still exist such as food insecurity affecting a million
people, waterborne disease outbreaks in parts of the country and mass
deportations of thousands of Zimbabweans from neighboring countries.”
Cotton planting also decreased from last season. A total of 45,000 hectares
were planted, compared with 107,727 hectares last season.
Farmers planted soybeans on 5,079 hectares compared with 13,674 hectares,
and tobacco on 39,393 hectares compared with 43,545 hectares.