Johannesburg — Heavy rains and floods over large parts of southern Africa in recent weeks have adversely affected food security in several countries, USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) said in its latest update.
Malawi
On Monday the Malawi government said that heavy rains and severe flooding had forced it to declare 13 districts in the south of the country disaster areas. It said that so far 200,000 people had been displaced and five killed by the floods.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MoAI) projected that maize production would drop by 15 percent from 2.5 million mt last year to 2.1 million mt this year, FEWS said. It added that the country had "adequate" food stocks both at national and household levels. "The official maize stocks stood at 85,640 mt as of the end of the first week of February 2001," FEWS said.
It added that local market maize prices have continued to rise as the number of households running out of food from their own production increases. However, FEWS noted that the rate of increase was lower than normally expected due to favourable food availability at the household level.
A shortage of pesticides for cotton in some of the major cotton-growing areas would adversely affect the yield and production, FEWS warned. "However, cotton production this year is projected to increase by 18 percent mainly due to increase in area planted as some farmers opted to grow cotton instead of tobacco," FEWS noted.
Mozambique
Despite floods and heavy rainfall in central Mozambique, most of the country received below normal cumulative rainfall during January, the early warning system said. It added that crop production was threatened by dry conditions in most of the southern part of the country, but so far, crops in the Limpopo Valley had been able to use "residual moisture" in the soil from last year's floods.
FEWS said however that heavy rains and floods in the provinces of Zambezia, Tete, and Sofala had so far washed away an estimated 27,000 hectares of crops.
Meanwhile, a two-year old outbreak of cassava brown streak disease was of growing concern in northern coastal areas, FEWS warned. It said the impact of the outbreak needed to be "urgently assessed". Cassava is an important source of both food and cash income for more than half a million families.
Zambia
Excessive rainfall in the northern half of Zambia has resulted in water logging in many areas, including some high maize-producing areas of Eastern and Central provinces. The extreme southern part of Zambia has been consistently experiencing dry conditions, FEWS said.
"The price of maize has remained relatively stable from mid-January to the first week of February, implying relative balance in supply and demand," FEWS noted.
Zimbabwe
The prolonged dry spell in January resulted in crop failure in the southern districts of the country, including parts of Midlands, Matebeleland South, Matebeleland North and Masvingo provinces, FEWS noted. Zimbabwe's grain harvest that starts in March is likely to be around 1.14 to 1.3 million mt (excluding wheat), about 39 percent less than the 1990s average of 1.87 million mt, it added.
"If current expectations were realized, the 2000/01 harvest would be equivalent to the lowest three harvests in the 1990s," FEWS said.
Zimbabwe is likely to have a maize deficit of about 400,000 mt to 600,000 mt for the 2001/02 marketing year (April 2001 to March 2002), the early warning system warned. It forecast that maize prices in the urban markets will be higher this year compared to the similar period last year.
Namibia
Meanwhile, Namibian news reports said on Tuesday that crop failure and a drastic reduction in maize and sorghum yields are expected to hit communal farming areas in the regions in the north, as well as the Caprivi and Kavango regions, due to late and erratic rainfall. A recent crop forecast by the Namibia Early Warning and Food Information System, was quoted by the 'The Namibian' as saying: "The prospects for crop growing activities in most crop producing regions looks bleak this season due to the late onset of rainfall." The report added: "Planting activities have been relatively delayed in the north and central regions as well as Kavango and parts of Caprivi... as a result of erratic and extremely low rainfall".
