Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bumper harvest could bring end to Zimbabwe’s hunger

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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…

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