Maize output up, but insufficient, says report

Despite good rainfall, Zimbabwe is expected to produce only 900,000 mt of maize, or around two-thirds of its national requirement, according to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Poor availability of fertiliser and the leaching out of nutrients as a result of incessant heavy rain had reduced the yield potential in most maize-producing areas, said the USDA report prepared by its Foreign Agricultural Services. Although the country experienced above average rainfall, the eastern province of Manicaland suffered a mid-season drought in February and crops in the area were severely affected, the report noted. The country is in the grip of its fifth year of food shortages, while the price of maize continues to escalate beyond the current inflation rate of almost 800 percent. Erratic weather conditions, the impact of the chaotic fast-track land reform programme on the agricultural sector and a lack of foreign currency to import inputs, such as fuel and fertiliser, have devastated Zimbabwe's food production sector. In its report, released this week, the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) described the food security situation in Zimbabwe as "precarious", and quoted independent economists as saying that the annual inflation rate was likely to shoot past the 800 percent mark in the coming weeks. FEWS-NET said maize and maize-meal had been scarce in Zimbabwean markets in the past two months, notwithstanding considerable grain imports. The official Herald newspaper reported this week that some imported maize was being smuggled to other neighbouring countries. "One only has to cross our borders to see piles of Zimbabwean maize-meal and other basic commodities in abundance, yet our shops are experiencing acute artificial shortages of some of these basic goods," the newspaper quoted the head of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Gershom Pasi, as saying. In parts of the country the state-run Grain Marketing Board has failed to distribute subsidised maize because of fuel shortages: households in the southern districts of Matebeleland South experienced the "most severe" maize-meal shortages in the country during January as a result of disruptions in the maize supply, according to FEWS-NET. The government is yet to conduct a crop assessment, but a clearer picture of agricultural output is likely to emerge next month, when maize planted at the end of 2005 will be harvested. Initial crop assessments have put output at between 700,000 mt and 900,000 mt. The country's annual maize requirement is estimated at 1.4 million mt.