Zimbabwe’s food crisis is worsening and millers are poised to lay off staff if 50 000 tons of maize from South Africa isn’t off-loaded and distributed shortly. Just before the March 31 election, the Grain Marketing Board, Zimbabwe’s only legal grain trader, discovered that it had only 88 000 tons of stored maize, 54 000 tons less than it had on its books. It ordered 150 000 tons from South Africa at up to R600 a ton, “the cheapest maize in the world” said one miller, before cartage costs. A third of this has been despatched by road. But congested wheat deliveries have slowed distribution of this initial shipment of maize, according to well-placed sources in the cereal’s sector. Zimbabwe will need to import another 700 000 tons before the next harvest a year from now. A spokesperson for the Grain Marketing Board said this week that security minister Nicholas Goche has been appointed to head up an emergency “task force” to ensure President Robert Mugabe’s pre election promise that “no one would starve” is kept. He did not respond to written questions put to him early this week about the grain statistics and plans to alleviate the crisis, which has seen the staple food mealie meal missing from most supermarkets around the country since the election.

Although there has been patchy rain and drought in some parts of the country, little maize was planted this summer season, and much of it was still being planted in late January which would mean yields of less than 50 percent of normal. Planting delays, according to the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union which represents more than 100 000 small scale farmers, were caused by the lack of seed maize, late availability of fertiliser and lack of power for ploughing. Well-placed sources in the non-governmental sector said they expected the Zimbabwe government to authorise an international appeal for food aid in June. “We cannot move until the government says so. It is still estimating this year’s crop. We are not even sure whether the statistics they provide will be reliable as it will probably be embarrassing, again,” said a Harare-based NGO. Last year President Robert Mugabe told international donors and NGOs distributing grain to send their aid elsewhere. He said in an interview with Sky News that Zimbabweans had grown 2,4-million tons of maize and would “choke” if donors continued to provide food. In neighbouring Zambia a grain bag manufacturing company in Lusaka is working around the clock producing for the anticipated movement of large amounts of food aid bought from South Africa. Since the collapse of commercial agriculture in 2001, which impacted heavily on peasant farmers, Western countries, through the World Food Programme and USAid, provided food for up to 5,5-million people, or nearly half the population until late last year.

From The Pretoria News (SA), 18 April