| CURRENT ISSUES | food security | |
| Excessive rains threaten regional food security | ||
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by Tinashe Madava
The current intensity of rainfall in southern Africa threatens the bumper harvests that many farmers had hoped for at the start of the rainy season late last year. Most parts of the region have so far received excessive rainfall causing widespread leaching, waterlogging and sometimes severe soil erosion.
In Zimbabwe, heavy rains have been pounding the country since November. More than 90 percent of the country has recorded above normal rainfall. However, it is feared that if the current wet spell persists, the crop on poorly drained soils will suffer from waterlogging, while the crop on light soil will be prone to nutrient deficiency because of leaching.
The rains have not just been a menace to crops in Zimbabwe. Most of the country’s rivers are flooding, destroying infrastructure built over many years.
In southern Mozambique, for the second year running, thousands of people have been forced out of their homes due to heavy flooding.
Joao Manga of the National Agricultural Directorate told the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa (IRIN) that there was particular concern for areas in the Gaza province, where incessant rainfall since November had cut off the towns of Massangena and Chigubo.
He said the provincial directorate had been unable to deliver seeds to the towns, which are classified as “very vulnerable” in food security terms.
The situation was worse this year as the heavy rainfall has cut off small towns and remote areas from major urban centres, resulting in loss of regular supplies.
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Manga also said farmers further north in the Beira region could face difficulties later this month if the rain continues. Farmers around the Pungue river, which has burst its banks, are already in trouble and likely to lose their crops. The magnitude of the problem in the Beira region was not yet known, but the area had been lashed by heavy rain for the third year in a row and there was a small degree of preparedness. Botswana, the second most arid country in SADC after Namibia, is reported to have received above normal rainfall in many parts of the country. Reports say the country, which mainly produces beef will be self-sufficient on cereal demand. However, hailstorms have destroyed buildings and livestock in Mosolotshane village and other parts of the country. Reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo say the country which is currently embroiled in military crisis, generally expects low harvests especially in the Kivu region. Late rains, renewed displacement, political uncertainty and looting of seeds and tools will result in a reduced harvest in the Uvira area of South Kivu according to a recent assessment by an international NGO. As a result of the situation, the number of people in the area requiring support has increased, with some “highly vulnerable” groups requiring urgent assistance, Food for the Hungry International (FHI) said. Humanitarian sources in Tanzania have described local press reports of a famine emergency as “exaggerated”. “There could be a problem around the corner in February/March and that’s what we need to ascertain, but there’s no cause for panic at the moment,” IRIN quoted local sources as saying. The sources added: “There is a genuine need in some of the regions and we are responding to it.” |
World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing food to drought-affected people in the two worst hit regions of Singida and Dodoma and is conducting a food security assessment across the country.
Local media have claimed that up to 300,000 people are at risk in 15 of Tanzania’s 20 regions. It is however acknowledged that Tanzania is facing shortages compounded by the drought of 1996/97 and the heavy El Nino rains of 1997/98. This season’s short rains have also been late. Low livestock prices and high maize prices are currently stretching household incomes, the sources added. Japie Grobbelaar of South Africa’s National Association of Maize Producer Organisation (Nampo), in an article in the Sunday Independent said that it was still too early to talk of a bumper harvest in the country, explaining that climatic swings are unpredictable and can cause a country to be an exporter in one year and an importer the next. There have been good rains so far in South Africa, according to press reports, but Grobbelaar is worried that the crops might be affected by a dry mid-season spell thereby reducing yields. While a number of countries face substantial cereal deficits that will have to be met by imports, South Africa still has a large maize surplus from the last season. They include Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia, where cereal production in 1997/98 declined significantly. The SADC Early Warning Unit, in its latest quarterly bulletin has also warned that the region will face a higher cereal deficit despite a surplus in the staple maize. It said total regional cereal supplies amounted to 25.26 million tonnes for the 1998/99 marketing year against requirements of 25.99 million tonnes. The Early Warning Unit said the outlook for the area planted in the 1998/99 cropping season appeared better in several areas due to prospects of good rains, with indications of increased maize hectarage in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.
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