Country could be facing severe food shortages

Zambia could be facing severe food shortages, a disaster official told IRIN on Tuesday. "We found 40 to 80 percent crop failure in five provinces [in the southwest] - the situation could be worse than the severe maize shortage after crop failure in 2000-01," said Stanley Ndhlovu, disaster management coordinator with the Zambia Red Cross Society. Ndhlovu was part of the Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) that toured the southwestern provinces last week. "The government is expected to release its forecast in early May - we will have a better sense of the situation then," Ndhlovu noted. Poor and erratic rainfall in most of the country's provinces prompted the Zambian government to issue a drought alert warning and announce the suspension of maize exports earlier this month. The maize crop failed in 2000-01, largely as a result of excessive rain and poor distribution of inputs, which saw production drop by around 30 percent. Another failed harvest in 2002 left an estimated 2.3 million in need of food aid. However, Zambia recorded significant maize harvests during the past two years. In 2004, after meeting its domestic consumption requirements of 1.2 million mt, it exported surplus stocks to its neighbours. This year the government's food reserve agency (FRA) announced that it was only holding stocks amounting to 120,000 mt of maize. "We found 100 percent crop failure in the southern province, where we could not even find green maize on the plants. Household food stocks have run out, and the majority of households cannot manage to meet their daily food needs. Households have already started employing various coping mechanisms, such as gathering of wild fruits, sale of small livestock, charcoal burning, skipping of meals, and sale of productive and household assets," said Ndhlovu. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has allocated more than US $42,000 to help the Zambia Red Cross provide additional resources to supplement government efforts to assist the affected communities. Sixty-five volunteers have been mobilised by the Red Cross in each of the drought-affected provinces, who are being trained in beneficiary identification and food distribution methods. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Maybin Mubanga told IRIN he was awaiting the VAC report and would provide more details next week.