daniel chigunwe
Zimbabwe needs $1,64 billion to bolster crop production after a devastating drought increased food insecurity and prompted a state of disaster.
The southern African nation is targeting a more than fourfold increase in the annual output of key crops to 4,1 million tonnes, including 2,7 million tonnes of its staple corn crop, next season, a government policy document seen by Bloomberg and verified by the Ministry of Agriculture showed.
It produced a record 2,8 million tonnes of corn in 2020-21.
The private sector is expected to contribute 60 percent to next season’s financing requirement through contracts while the Government will cover 37 percent and self-financed farmers will make up the remainder, the ministry said in the document. It didn’t explain how the money would be raised.
Zimbabwe suffered its worst drought in more than four decades in the season just ended as the El Niño weather phenomenon curbed rainfall and scorched crops across the country and the wider southern African region.
That increased food insecurity, prompting President Emmerson Mnangagwa to declare a state of national disaster in April, a step also taken by a number of neighbouring countries.
“The El Niño season affected the entire Southern African region, but Zimbabwe seemed to be the epicentre,” the ministry said.
The country consumes 2,2 million tonnes of corn annually, with about 80 percent used for food and the remainder for livestock feed.
Zimbabwe is seeking assistance from the United Nations’ World Food Programme and its millers have also said they will need to import about 1,4 million tonnes to meet demand.
The planting season that starts next month is expected to benefit from the La Niña weather phenomenon, which typically brings normal- or -above-normal rainfall. — Bloomberg
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