| |
Back to Index
Imports
cushion food deficit
Augustine
Mukaro, The Zimbabwe Independent
August
18, 2006
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=5273&siteid=1
GOVERNMENT imported
nearly a million tonnes of maize and wheat from South Africa over
the past year in a desperate move to cover up huge food deficits
likely to hit the country before the 2006/7 harvest.
In its latest report
for July, the US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet),
said Zimbabwe imported more than 900 000 tonnes of maize to close
the food deficit gap for that period.
Data gleaned by the organisation from the South African Grain Information
Services (Sagis) indicate the importation was carried out during
the period April 2005 to March 2006.
"Commercial and food aid maize imports from South Africa to
Zimbabwe continued in February and March 2006," the report
said.
"According to Sagis, 114 292 tonnes of maize were exported
to Zimbabwe between February 10 and March 31, 2006, bringing the
cumulative official maize exports to Zimbabwe to 993 472 tonnes
for the period April 2, 2005 to March 31, 2006. This represents
about 93% of the total maize gap estimated at the beginning of the
2005/6 consumption year."
Fewsnet said Zimbabwe would harvest about 135 000 tonnes of wheat,
an increase from last year’s 120 000 tonnes. The harvest still falls
short, as it will be enough to cover only about 34% of the country’s
requirements.
"Wheat production for 2006 is expected to be about 135 000
tonnes, which is 13% higher than the 2005 production level of about
120 000 tonnes," Fewsnet reports says.
"The 2006 production still falls far short of national requirements
estimated to be around 400 000 tonnes."
The food monitoring international agency also warned that rising
costs of food would impact negatively on the food security situation
of most households in the country.
It said while the national level of cereal availability seemed satisfactory,
sub-national and household level food availability was going to
be heavily dependent on the efficiency and effectiveness of sub-national
grain redistribution systems and the purchasing power of deficit
and non-food producing households.
Fewsnet said: "Projected cereal deficit of about 22% for the
2006/7 marketing year is concentrated in the southern districts
as well as the western and eastern margins of the country."
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
