Food shortages loom say farmers

Zambia was expected to experience a huge shortage of maize, the country’s staple food, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) said on Thursday. “A maize shortage is expected this year. ZNFU estimates a shortfall of 120,000 to 150,000 mt,” Songowayo Zyambo, ZNFU executive director, was quoted saying in an AFP report. According to the report, the Zambian government had no official estimates of the shortfall, but had set up a committee to find solutions to the crisis to prevent market distortions and food riots. “This year ZNFU is convinced that there will be a shortfall expected to be experienced around December 2001 and January 2002,” Zyambo was quoted saying. About two million Zambians already faced starvation because their crops were washed away by floods which ripped through southern Africa earlier this year, the report said. According to Zyambo, 40 of Zambia’s 73 districts would have maize deficits. Zambian Vice President Enoch Kavindele told AFP earlier in the week that about 98,000 mt of grain was needed to avert a hunger crisis in rural areas. The Zambian government had issued an appeal to donors for help, and so far two countries had provided about US $750,000 in food aid, the report said. Meanwhile, farmers accused Zimbabwe on Thursday of dumping agricultural products on their market in violation of rules governing the regional Free Trade Area (FTA) signed last year. According to an AFP report, Zambian farmers at their annual congress said that Zimbabwe had been dumping wheat, dairy, oil seed and horticultural products on the Zambian market, contrary to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) FTA treaty. “Trade with Zimbabwe has been the biggest problem,” said Songowayo Zyambo, executive director of the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU). “Zimbabwe has a lot of economic problems, and because of its desperate efforts for foreign exchange, has been dumping a lot of products on Zambia,” Zyambo told the farmers congress. Dumping is the selling of goods in another country at below the market prices in that country.