System to monitor informal cross-border food trade

A low-cost system to monitor informal cross-border food trade is to become operational in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in June. The monitoring system, to be established by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and the World Food Programme (WFP), will help donor agencies and analysts to determine how informal trade offsets local food deficits. Centres based on the Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network model operating in East Africa will be set up on the borders between the four countries to monitor, record and disseminate information related to informal food trade flows. FEWS NET expected an increased amount of informal trade, particularly between northern Mozambique and drought-affected southern Malawi, as a result of the erratic rainfall in the region. The Network said it had over-estimated the food aid required for Malawi last season because there were no statistics on the quantity of food that had entered the country informally. "If we are informed, we can then allow the informal trade to play its role before an intervention is made," a representative noted. A FEWS NET monthly update on Mozambique said maize from several districts in the Zambezia and Tete provinces was already being sold to traders in Malawi, while Malawian traders were selling beans in Mozambique. "It is hoped that this initiative will strengthen natural trade linkages between countries, and thus, enhance food security," the report commented. Expanded production of maize was anticipated said Mario Obisi, head of the country's early warning department. Preliminary projections indicated a "much better harvest in southern Mozambique than the last two seasons." He added, "We lost 51,000 hectares of the maize crop to drought in southern Mozambique in the last season. This season we have only lost 8,000 hectares." According to Obisi, the overall maize production for the 2003-04 season was expected to improve to 1.4 million metric tonnes, from about 1.2 million metric tonnes last season. The WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation will begin a Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission on Friday to confirm national crop estimates, while the FEWS NET report confirmed that maize planted in January was already flowing through the trade circuits. Total cereal production, including rice, was expected to reach 1.9 million tonnes this season, an improvement over last season's 1.8 million metric tonnes, said Obisi. Although cumulative rainfall from January to mid-April has been above normal in Maputo and much of interior Gaza in southern Mozambique, many other areas have recorded less than normal rains, with deficits particularly notable in the southeastern coastal province of Inhambane. Seasonal rains continued to fall erratically in March and the first part of April, but the coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado in the north experienced heavy rainfall this month, causing localised flooding and minor damage to property and crops. Gaza in southwestern Mozambique, known as a drought-prone area, received the highest rainfall, ranging from 180 percent to 152 percent of normal rainfall, while normal cumulative levels were registered in most other provinces. Despite the rainfall deficits in the southeastern province of Inhambane, a number of factors were likely to minimise the negative effects on household food security in that area. Cassava and cowpeas, the area's main staple crops, are drought-resistant, and according to FEWS NET, field reports suggested that both had fared relatively well.