Lack of seed jeopardises critical 2002/03 cereal crop

Preparations for the critical 2002/2003 planting season in drought-stricken Zimbabwe have been complicated by the lack of maize seed on the market. Despite assurances by seed suppliers that there was enough in the country to satisfy all domestic requirements for the 2002/03 production season, only small amounts are in fact available, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said in its latest report. "About 94 percent of farmers have no maize seed [for their next season's cereal crop] and about 60 percent don't know when they will get some. Without a timely and urgent distribution of maize seeds, many of Zimbabwe's farmers will not be able to plant. The consequences of a drop in maize production would be staggering," FEWS NET warned. The recently completed Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) Emergency Food Security Assessment report indicated that 4.5 million people need food aid from September through November 2002. This number was expected to increase to 6.7 million from December through to March 2003. The assessment was carried out jointly by the UN World Food Programme, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Children's Fund, FEWS NET and the Zimbabwe VAC. However, "the government's input support programme, funded at Zim $8.5 billion [about US $150 million at the official rate] ... has not started delivering inputs to smallholder farmers in either communal or resettlement areas". And time remaining for the input distribution was "becoming critically short", FEWS NET noted. Economic analysts have estimated that Zim $160 billion (about US $3 billion) would be needed to adequately support the communal farmers and the newly resettled farmers with seeds, chemical fertilisers, tillage and extension advice. "The government's supplementary budget allocation for the input support programme is a mere 5 percent of the total estimated required funding," FEWS NET added. Aware that more funding was required, the government was negotiating with the banking sector for the provision of new farm loans. However, "little progress has been made in this direction because new farmers have only long-term leases and lack title deeds or other collateral and the government has not provided guarantees that the funding will go to the farmers," the early warning unit said. Full report