March 2, 2010

Drought ruins 200,000 hectares of corn in Zimbabwe

More than 200,000 hectares of the current corn crop in Zimbabwe has been written off after being scorched during the dry spell that affected the country during December and January.

A livestock and crop assessment that was conducted by the government over the past month found that 200,574 hectares, or 11% of the 1,723,990 planted this year have been completely damaged, especially in the southern and eastern provinces of the country, where the drought was severe.

As a result, the government has decided to prepare a buffer of 500,000 tonnes of corn through imports, which will cushion the impact of the expected grain shortages.

Agriculture minister Joseph Made said that as at February 12, 54% of the corn crop was at reproductive stage, having been saved by good rains that had been experienced since the last week of January.

"Farmers in some parts of the country have started replanting the corn crop and this will have an effect on the second round of the assessment," he said. "We hope the second assessment will give a different picture on the situation."

He said the condition of the corn crop in most parts of the country was generally "poor to fair."

He said livestock pastures were mostly in good condition around the country although certain parts had been destroyed by the drought.

He said the government would quickly give permits to importers who wanted to bring in corn and that US$3.5 million was available for payment to farmers who would deliver corn to the Grain Marketing Board.

Last year, Zimbabwe reaped 1.4 million tonnes of corn, which was a 100% increment on the previous year.