Roundup: Zimbabwe faces loomy harvest prospect as extreme weather kicks in

Extreme weather conditions have dampened hopes for good harvests this current cropping season and spurred the government to issue licences to companies that want to import maize, in a bid to avert looming hunger.

While the northern parts of the country experienced flooding in many areas and caused leaching of fertilizers, the southern parts remained largely dry and crops are now in a permanent state of wilting because of moisture stress.

Apart from Zimbabwe, most other countries in Southern Africa are also threatened by hunger because of the unfavorable weather.

Executive Secretary of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Stergomena Lawrence Tax told a media briefing in Harare this week that the food security situation in the region was expected to be less than satisfactory during 2015/16 because of poor rains in most parts, dry spells in some areas and floods in others.

"The (SADC) will continue to monitor the situation and support early warning for food security and vulnerable assessments in the member states," she said.

Her sentiments came at a time maize prices were rising in neighboring South Africa amid fears that the season would not be a good one.

Zimbabwe experienced the whole concoction of adverse weather conditions as described by Tax, with some areas remaining dry while those that had experienced flooding also had dry spells which adversely affected crops.

President of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union Abdul Nyathi told Xinhua in an interview that the adverse weather conditions would greatly reduce yields this season.

"The southern provinces received very little rains and there is very little that will be harvested from there. The northern regions, however, received plenty of rains and fields became waterlogged and there was heavy leaching.

"Again, we are going to experience poor yields and the situation is so bad that we may not even achieve 50 percent of what we got last year," he said.

The country produced 1.4 million tonnes of maize during the 2013/14 agricultural season, raising hope that there would be a decline in maize imports during the 2014/15 marketing season.

But this is not to be as imports are already trickling in to avert hunger.

Nyathi urged farmers relying on dry land cropping to stop counting their losses and start preparing for next season, while those with irrigation facilities should get ready for the winter cropping season during which they grow wheat.

A commercial farmer just south of Harare, Mark Chiriseri, said most farmers in his area were reeling from the prevailing dry weather.

"The situation is terrible. I am currently irrigating the crop at my farm, but what of those who do not have irrigation facilities?" he said.

A journalist working in the southern province of Masvingo, and who has been assessing the crop situation in the area said the situation was dire, but there was some hope for those with small grains.

"Most of the maize crop is a complete write-off. There are, however, some pockets where people managed to get some harvests but food aid will be required in many others," he said.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development told Senate on Thursday that some companies had already started importing maize following the issuance of import licenses to avert hunger.

He said the government was also assessing the food situation in the country to see which areas needed urgent support.

"Our teams are already in the provinces and we expect that by the end of this month we would be clear on what areas are in need and what kind of assistance they will need so that we can forward the information to the Ministry of Finance and assist them in early mobilization of resources to import more grain," he said.

So far, the government has not come up with figures on how much will be produced and the scope for assistance to be required, although it is clear that the country will not be able to meet its grain requirements of 1.8 million tons a year.

While there is hope still for the farmers who went for small grains such as sorghum and finger millet, which are more drought resistant, their number remains very small and insignificant to national production.

A poor agricultural season has a telling effect on Zimbabwe's economy where 75 percent of the population live on the soil, while agriculture also contributes about 60 percent of raw materials to the manufacturing sector.

In the meantime, some farmers who had good harvests during the last planting season have decided to hang on to their maize fearing that selling the bulk may leave them vulnerable to hunger. Endi