The Mazowe district in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland Central province is facing significant challenges due to a prolonged severe drought.
This drought is not only threatening the country’s maize supply but also impacting the business of local grain millers.
Farmer Terry Manyimo, like many others in the region, is experiencing the devastating effects of the drought firsthand.
“The way I am seeing our field right now, if we even get a bucket of maize it would be… I don’t know, we are not expecting anything from this field,” Manyimo says.
The severe drought in Mazowe district has led to the loss of a million hectares of maize, significantly impacting Zimbabwe’s agricultural output. To address the production and demand gap, authorities are looking to import maize from other countries to meet the country’s needs.
Harare has been importing grain from South Africa, a neighboring country, and additional stocks are expected to be shipped from Brazil, a major agricultural producer.
These imports are aimed at ensuring a stable supply of maize and mitigating the adverse effects of the drought on Zimbabwe’s food security.
“The drought itself in terms of our estimation will require us to import about 1.1 million tonnes of maize for both human and livestock consumption from between now and July 31 of 2025,” Tafadzwa Musarara, the chairman of the Grain Millers Association said.
Over than 80% of Zimbabwe received below normal rainfall, prompting the president to declared a state of disaster in early April. Similar moves were taken by neighbouring Zambia and Malawi.
In this harsh environment, people have to pay more for less food.
Musarara assures millers don’t make profits out of margins.
“Demand is huge, and therefore demand is huge, prices tend to go up. But in terms of our pricing model we will retain our usual margins that we have been keeping. We don’t make profit out of margins we make profit out of volumes.”
The director of the Zimbabwe Climate Change Management Department says the government takes into account the climate crisis, investing over a billion dollars every year.
“As a government, right now it’s mandatory for all ministries to ensure that they mainstream climate change in their budgeting and planning to offer 1.2 billion (U.S. dollars) every year,” Washington Zhakata said.
Drought linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon has scorched crops across Southern Africa, leaving millions of people in need of food assistance.
SOURCE : NEW ZIMBABWE
