Zimbabwe maize output to decline by 35 percent – FAO

0

Zimbabwe’s maize production for 2015 is expected to decline by 35 percent to 950 tonnes from 1,456 tonnes in 2014 due to unfavorable weather patterns, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Tuesday.
maize “The unfavorable rains in Zimbabwe, particularly impacting the low producing regions in the south, resulted in a write-off of nearly 300,000 hectares, with the 2015 harvest preliminary forecast at under 1 million tonnes, about one-third down on 2014,” the UN agency said in a report.
It said large volumes of maize imports were forecast in the country, as well as in the whole of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, where maize harvest was projected to decline by 26 percent to 21.1 million tonnes in 2015.
Zimbabwe requires about 1.5 million tonnes of maize for human consumption annually but production of the staple food has been on a decline in recent years due to erratic weather patterns, forcing the nation to resort to imports to augment local supplies. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here