Zambia and Ukraine have pledged to supply drought stricken Zimbabwe with 650,000 metric tons of maize. Zambia will provide 150,000 metric tons while Ukraine will provide 500,000 metric tons. Zambia’s corn crop yield will be down 30%, while South Africa the continents largest grain producer will be down 39% as it suffers the worst drought in 18 years, due to EL Nino bad weather.
“We are now putting up logistics for the delivery of hongu (corn in Shona),” Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa told reporters in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday, using a local term for corn.
Zimbabwe has appealed for $1.6 billion to feed 3 million people, about a quarter of the population after the worst drought in more than two decades damaged crops, killed livestock and led President Robert Mugabe to declare a disaster.
The southern African nation has “mobilized” $200 million to fight hunger, Mnangagwa said. Central bank Governor John Mangudya in January said that the country had secured a $200 million loan from African Export-Import Bank to import corn, used in a staple dish, while the European Union had promised 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million), NewsDay reported. The nation has 250,000 tons of corn reserves that should last until September, Mangudya was cited as saying by the newspaper.
Zimbabwean farmers will probably produce about 200,000 tons of corn this year, the smallest harvest since at least 1961 when the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization began collecting the data. Consumption is projected at about 1.1 million tons to 2 million tons in 2016-17.
This is the second year of low rainfall in Zimbabwe and the weather pattern may be linked to the El Nino phenomenon, according to the UN humanitarian agency.
Zambia will have enough corn to make good on its promise to export some to Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa said.
Zambia Business Times