Zimbabwe: The bad news of a relatively good maize harvest
JOHANNESBURG: A more than two fold increase in Zimbabwe's production of its staple, maize, in 2009 will not be enough to rid the country of food insecurity.
Maize field in village near Bafata, 80km east of Bissau. © Anna Jefferys/IRIN
A crop report by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), released on 25 June, said: "National production of maize in 2009 is estimated at 1.14 million tons, an increase of 130 percent on that of the record low harvest of 2008 [471,000 tons]. Total domestic cereal availability for 2009/10 is estimated to be 1.39 million tons."
WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon told IRIN the maize harvest "looks very good, but last year was very bad". National food requirement is around 1.7 million tons.
