At least 6.2 million rural people will require assistance, with nearly 465,000 metric tonnes of grain needed, according to the country’s Food Security Outlook to March 2025, underscoring the severity of the drought situation.
Zimbabwe’s Strategic Grain Reserve currently holds 264,246 metric tonnes of grain, excluding 32,314 metric tonnes imported by the government.
To cover a shortfall of 200,362.54 metric tonnes, the government plans to use surplus from the winter wheat harvest and import an additional 300,000 metric tonnes.
The figures were presented by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, before the Cabinet on Wednesday.
“The country’s food balance sheet to March 2025 indicates that 6.2 million rural residents will need assistance. Considering the requirements of the rural population until March 2025 and the school feeding program until April 2025, the maximum amount of grain required is 464,608.54 metric tonnes,” Dr Masuka stated.
“Current stocks in the Strategic Grain Reserve, which include wheat, maize, and traditional grains, stand at 264,246 metric tonnes, excluding 32,314 metric tonnes imported by the Government to date. ”
The agriculture minister added that the 200,362.54 metric tonne shortfall will be addressed through the surplus from the winter wheat harvest, which exceeds the national annual requirement of 240,000 metric tonnes, along with additional Government grain imports estimated at 300,000 metric tonnes.
Dr Masuka also noted that the government will accelerate depot-to-depot grain movement for the current period of August to October 2024.
He added that regarding the Winter Cereals Plan, 121 982 hectares of wheat, 2 100 hectares of maize, 3 732 hectares of potatoes, 6 449 hectares of barley and 3 000 hectares of seed wheat were planted, noting that the wheat-based food security strategy is sufficiently robust to meet people’s needs by March 2025.
“The Grain Marketing Board is now operating 50 Agro-shops, supported by 12 hammer mills mostly in rural areas and peri-urban depots as part of the Government price stabilisation thrust, and to enhance product availability, accessibility and affordability,” said the agriculture minister.
“The commodities sold at these Agro-shops include mealie-meal, sugar, rice, salt, flour, soap and cooking oil. Silo Foods’ complementary products include coffee, bran, dried kapenta, flour, grits, maize-meal, salt, silo samp and traditional mealie-meal.
The private sector is expected to import all stock-feed requirements by March 2025 of 400 000 metric tonnes and urban maize requirements of up to 450 000 metric tonnes. To date 567 160 metric tonnes have been imported. Import permits worth 1.8 million metric tonnes of maize are active.”
