March 2001 Africa News Headlines

Wednesday, March 7, 2001 - Web posted at 7:58:16 AM GMT

Floods threaten SADC food security

HARARE - Southern African countries face a deficit of staple cereals such as maize and rice and crops like cassava due to floods, drought, reduced planting and high costs, a regional food security body has warned.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Early Warning Unit, said in its February monthly food security report that flooding has left tens of thousands of hectares of crop under water in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe."

"The SADC region faces prospects of a reduced maize crop for the 2000/2001 crop season because plantings have been reduced by poor early season rains, yields are threatened by high input costs, while flooding as well as near-drought conditions have played havoc with summer crops," said the report obtained by AFP yesterday.

According to the report, the countries where farmland has been swept away or crops have been waterlogged are Mozambique, southern Malawi, eastern Zambia, northeastern Zimbabwe and parts of Tanzania."

"Heavy rains have continued to cause havoc in central Mozambique where flooding has... put 23 000 hectares of rice and cassava under water in Zambezia (province) alone," said the monthly update.

At the other extreme, dry spells are threatening crops in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and parts of northern South Africa."

"Crops have also been under threat from prolonged dry spell that has affected southern Zimbabwe, northern South Africa, Lesotho and southern Mozambique," according to the report.

The Mozambican killer floods which have left at least 62 people dead, forced 80 000 from their homes, and affected as many as 460 000, have hit the mainstay crops, rice, cassava and maize."

"The food supply position for the 2001/2002 marketing year is thus likely to be grossly inadequate due to flooding."

"Ironically, in Mozambique's southern Gaza province, scene of last year's worst floods in living memory, "a dramatic decline in maize prospects has been assessed because of lack of rain."

"In Malawi, SADC said although the cereal supply position for the current marketing year, following three consecutive years of good harvests, heavy rains have flooded southern parts and waterlogging has "resulted into yellowing of maize in most parts of the country".

Angola, which was last month cited by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as among some of the African countries worst affected by food shortages, has been named as being in dangerous situation, due to low, intermittent and irregular rains.

SADC said although campaigns had been stepped up to improve agriculture, "drought conditions, limited land distribution and insecurity were likely to hamper production and food security".

The food security situation remains precarious given the continued state of insecurity prevailing in most rural areas," the body said of a country that has seen a perpetual civil war for 25 years.

In Zambia, besides waterlogging and dry spells in parts of the country, the country had a cereal surplus of 91 000 tonnes for the current marketing year, but the 260 000 refugees inside the country may cause some problems.

The influx of war refugees from neighbouring Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has, however, cause some food insecurity problems along the border districts, said the report.

In Zimbabwe, SADC said commercial farmers had cut their hectarage under maize by 50 per cent from last year due to fuel shortages, lack of credit schemes to buy inputs and low producer prices.

The report forecast that Zimbabwe would harvest 1,5 million tonnes of maize, 500 000 tonnes short of national requirements.

Of the 33 countries cited last week by FAO to be facing food emergencies, 16 are in Africa and three of them - Angola, DRC and Tanzania - are in the SADC.

The latest SADC report, however, does not include the situation in the DRC.

While South Africa had "excellent conditions" for planting, maize was down 20 per cent as farmers battled with increased costs due to the fall of the local currency and stagnant producer prices.
- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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