Drought destroys 200,000ha of maize in Zimbabwe http://www.postzambia.com
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Mon 01 Mar. 2010, 23:10 CAT
MORE than 200,000 hectares of the current maize crop in Zimbabwe has been written off after being scorched during the dry spell that affected the country during December and January.
A livestock and crop assessment that was conducted by the government over the past month found that 200,574 hectares, or 11 per cent of the 1,723,990 planted this year have been completely damaged, especially in the southern and eastern provinces of the country, where the drought was severe.
As a result, the government has decided to prepare a buffer of 500,000 metric tonnes of maize through imports, which will cushion the impact of the expected grain shortages.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made told journalists at a press briefing that as at February 12, 54 per cent of the maize crop was at reproductive stage, having been saved by good rains that had been experienced since the last
week of January.
“Farmers in some parts of the country have started replanting the maize crop and this will have an effect on the second round of the assessment,” he said. “We hope the second assessment will give a different picture on the
situation.”
He said the condition of the maize crop in most parts of the country was generally “poor to fair.”
However, Made said the tobacco and cotton crops this season were doing fairly although farmers have had to contend with shortages of fertilisers, power cuts and poor rains.
He said livestock pastures were mostly in good condition around the country although certain parts had been destroyed by the drought.
He said the government would quickly give permits to importers who wanted to bring in maize and that US $3.5 million was available for payment to farmers who would deliver maize to the Grain Marketing Board.
The current development is set to increase the number of people who will need food aid in Zimbabwe.
The Famine early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) has since revised upwards the number of Zimbabweans requiring food assistance during the lean hunger season beginning this month amid fears donors may also encounter a serious cereal shortfall until March 2010
It said close to 2.2 million people or 18 per cent of the population would be food insecure in Zimbabwe between January and March 2010, up from an estimated 1.7 million Zimbabweans who were said to be in need of aid between October and December.
This is higher than the previous projection of 1.9 million who were estimated to require emergency food assistance between January and Zimbabwe’s next harvest around March or April.
FEWSNET said the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) planned to scale up its food assistance activities from January to cover the food insecure population.
WFP was however projecting a major shortfall of more than 40,000 metric tonnes of cereals between December 2009 and March.
The UN agency announced in December that it faced a US $50 million funding gap for its Zimbabwe operation until the end of the year that could see the United Nations agency failing to feed the people who require food aid.
Last year, Zimbabwe reaped 1.4 million metric tonnes of maize, which was a 100 per cent increment on the previous year.