Zimbabwe is expecting its biggest harvest of maize in 20 years, a sign that the country could end its cycle of food deficits due to successive droughts and a chaotic land reform programme.
Official data shows the country will harvest 2.7 million tonnes of the staple grain in the 2020/21 summer crop season, the highest yield in 20 years, nearly 200 percent higher than last year and 130 percent above average.
Zimbabwe expects to get a surplus of over 820,000 tonnes of cereals this year, the highest yield since the 2000/01 season when the later president, Robert Mugabe began the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms.
His controversial land reforms led to the collapse of Zimbabwe’s agro-based economy and spawned large-scale food shortages with aid agencies to date still feeding more than half of the country’s population. Read more…
