Plans underway to restore Zimbabwe regional bread basket status




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The Director General of the World Food Programme, WFP, Mr David Beasley says plans are afoot to make Zimbabwe the bread basket of the sub region.

He said this after meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly currently underway in New York.

The WFP is the United Nations largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security across the globe. Soon after meeting the President, Mr Beasly said Zimbabwe is poised not only to produce food for subsistence but for the entire region.

Feeding an average of 91.4 million people in 83 countries yearly, the WFP, which is headquartered in Rome, Italy, says they are already involved in the long term planning to make Zimbabwe a bread basket for the entire Southern Africa region.

The last cropping season (2018/19) in Zimbabwe was marked with late onset of rains, which resulted in abnormally dry conditions, affecting agriculture activities, thereby reducing the income of the most vulnerable households relying on agriculture for livelihood.

Dry conditions have also resulted in high livestock deaths leaving most households food insecure.

The Southern Africa region, which is typically self-sufficient in maize, will have a below-average net maize supply in the 2019/20 marketing year. This supply will also be lower than that of the 2018/19 marketing year.

The region is expected to register a net maize supply of 100,000 MT, which is less than a tenth of the five-year average net supply.

This is the lowest that supplies have been since the 2016/17 marketing year when supplies were exceptionally low as a result of El Niño conditions.

Source – zbc