Lusaka appeals for food aid

The Zambian government has launched an urgent appeal for food aid for two million people facing severe shortages following floods and dry spells across the country and a poor maize harvest, news reports said on Tuesday. Zambian Vice-President Enock Kavindele issued an urgent appeal for food aid, saying his government needed 98,000 mt of maize. “There is a disaster in food security in some areas. There are up to two million people whose food security has become worse and for whom the situation is desperate,” Kavindele told a meeting with Lusaka-based diplomats. The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) put maize production as down 30 percent in 2000/2001 at 490,000 mt. Kavindele said the government required 98,000 mt of maize to hand out to those in need. ZNFU said that figure referred to peasants who required hand-outs, but another 150,000 mt of maize would have to be imported for the open market, Reuters reported. Heavy rains in February and March caused extensive flooding, mainly in the Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Lusaka, Northern and Northwestern provinces along the Zambezi and Luangwa rivers, OCHA said in a report last week. FAO reported a sharp reduction in yields in the Southern and Western provinces due to prolonged dry weather. ZNFU president Ajay Vashee told Reuters the government’s crop tracking and forecasting unit had collapsed and no reliable commodity statistics were available from that source. Vashee said a lack of credit, a shortage of inputs such as fertiliser and poor marketing had combined to undermine maize output. He added that low prices for last year’s crop had led some farmers to withholding their harvest from the market this year as they tried to avoid last year’s losses.