Weather again jeopardises crop

Southern Africa's crops and food supplies have again been jeopardised by late and erratic rains followed by floods, the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) reported this week. In its latest Food, Crops and Shortages report, the GIEWS noted that the "agricultural season is drawing to a close" in the region, but "the first half of the season was characterised by delayed, inadequate and erratic rains". The HIV/AIDS pandemic had compounded food security problems in most of the region's countries, it said. Although crop prospects improved with more favourable rainfall during the second half of the season (February to April), intense rains in parts of Zambia and Angola during this period caused many rivers to overflow, bringing serious flooding to western Zambia and parts of Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, where the heavy rains damaged crops and "necessitated emergency food relief", said GIEWS. "Madagascar was hit by cyclones in January, February and March, causing large-scale damage affecting 774,000 people and some 300,000 hectares of vanilla, paddy and other crops," the report noted. Harvest prospects in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and parts of Malawi and Angola were "unfavourable due to dry weather conditions, especially during the first half of the season". Zambia, Botswana and Namibia, on the other hand, were expecting normal to above normal harvests. "[However] the food situation in Zimbabwe is potentially critical, as early estimates indicate a harvest lower than the reduced level of 2003," GIEWS warned. "The food deficit in 2004/05 (April/March) could be as much as 1 million mt, to be filled by a combination of commercial imports and food aid." Joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme are underway in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland. A CFSAM in Zimbabwe was "curtailed". The results of the CFSAMs will be finalised this month, the report said.