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FEWS Zimbabwe Food Security Update Oct 2006
Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET)
November 28, 2006

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YSAR-6VYP8V?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

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Summary and implications
Cereal availability in Zimbabwe this marketing year depends upon the country's ability to finance the planned imports of 565,000 MT of maize and about 230,000 MT of wheat. The poor state of Zimbabwe's economy will make raising the required funds enormously challenging. The availability of maize meal in shops throughout the country improved in September and early October, particularly in southern Zimbabwe, where purchase of cereal grown in more productive areas of Zimbabwe is required to meet local demand. The ever-increasing cost of food and cost of living are making market purchase to fill food gaps prohibitive. Local maize prices are highly correlated to local food security: areas that were assessed to have the highest concentration of food insecure people recorded the highest open market grain prices in October 2006. The problem is exacerbated by the Grain Marketing Board's (GMB) limited capacity to redistributed available maize throughout the country, which fuels higher grain prices on the open market. Fuel and fertilizer shortages persist with hardly any time left before the start of the 2006/07 summer cropping season.

Current hazard summary

  • Soaring annual inflation was measured in September 2006 at 1,023 percent.
  • The cereal deficit for the 2006/07 marketing year is projected to be about 22 percent of total domestic needs.
  • Shortages of fertilizers and fuel are likely to going to reduce food and cash crop production in the 2006/07 agricultural season.
  • El Nino conditions were confirmed in September 2006, but it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about its likely impacts on the current agricultural season.

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