Zimbabwe: Milk and Tomato Shortages Explained

opinion

AGRICULTURE matters have been quite topical for a while now. The past two weeks have seen the shortage of milk persisting. The price of tomatoes has spiked to extremely high levels, with these anomalously high price levels persisting. Milk and tomatoes form part of the Zimbabwean household's dietary needs.

Let us examine the drivers behind the milk shortage. There is one certain driver and two other drivers that are rather speculative. The first driver of the milk shortage is the unusually persistent wet spell. Dairy cows are very sensitive to environmental changes -- some breeds are more resilient than others. Dairy cows need a hormone called oxytocin to aid them to release milk. When the cows are stressed the production of oxytocin is suppressed, resulting in the cow suppressing milk.

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