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ZIMBABWE: Higher staple prices indicate greater need, FEWS NET
IRIN News
October 07, 2004

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43548

JOHANNESBURG - Significant increases in the price of maize, a staple food in Zimbabwe, indicate that needs are likely to be higher than originally projected, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).

In its latest monthly report on the food security situation in Zimbabwe, FEWS NET noted that the selling price set by the state's grain monopoly, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), "is over 34 percent higher than the maize price that the Zimbabwe VAC [Vulnerability Assessment Committee] assumed for this time of year when it made its projections that about 2.3 million rural people would require ... 178,000 mt of food assistance".

This meant that food aid needs could be higher than initially thought. "According to various official reports issued in September (by the GMB Chief Executive, and the Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Rural Resources, Water Development and Resettlement), farmers had sold between 294,000 mt and 325,000 mt of maize grain to the GMB. The maize collections reported by the GMB are less than 30 percent of the total amount of maize the government had estimated it would buy from farmers this marketing year," FEWS NET observed.

The government of Zimbabwe predicted a bumper harvest this year but independent assessments have warned that this was unlikely. Zimbabwe's parliament has ordered a committee to investigate the matter, as the GMB has yet to receive the predicted grain harvest of 2.4 million mt.

FEWS NET said that in rural areas where most households depend on local maize production, markets have become the main source of the staple. However, "given that the average maize grain prices were between Zim $5,000 - Zim $8,000 per bucket [equivalent to 18kg] in April, just after the maize harvest, it is clear that already this year there have been significant increases in staple prices," the report warned.

Prices ranged between Zim $10,000 and Zim $12,000 a bucket in mid-September.

In the traditional grain surplus rural areas, "most households are still relying on their own production from last season's harvest".

But poorer households in grain deficit areas "are unable to buy food due to the limited income options they have; hence, a significant number of these households are already reducing the number and size of meals they eat, as well as attempting to make small amounts of cash in risky and non-traditional ways, such as gold panning," noted.

Those with livestock have been selling them to purchase food and, in general, "people have more options in the areas where a good grain and cash crop harvest occurred last year because casual labour opportunities are more readily available".

The same was not true for areas where a large community of ex-commercial farm workers was present and no irrigated cropping was taking place, said FEWS NET. "In such areas most ex-commercial farm workers are not gainfully employed and have no reliable means to earn money for food. The food security situation for a significant proportion of the people in these areas is desperate."

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