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D'Amelio said international aid agencies have been taking on a new approach of providing seeds, fertilisers and technical support to help local farmers secure food supplies for the country.

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HARARE - A United Nations official has said Zimbabwe's farming sector has increased food production from 1.2 million to 1.3 million tonnes since the 2008 food crisis.

The regional information coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacopo D'Amelio, told news agency Reuters that the sector is recovering thanks to international aid, better use of land and the end of hyperinflation.

D'Amelio said international aid agencies have been taking on a new approach of providing seeds, fertilisers and technical support to help local farmers secure food supplies for the country.

But he warned that funding shortages could threaten such programmes. Combined donor support helped to account for 20 percent of the country's maize output in the past season, according to relief agencies.

Zimbabwe, once the breakbasket of southern Africa, has recorded a consistent decline in its staple maize crop since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe’s government began seizing white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

Farms that escaped repossession have also suffered shortages of seed and fertiliser, making Zimbabwe reliant on imports and food aid since 2002.

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