Drought wiped out Zimbabwe’s maize crop

Zimbabwe’s maize production will drop by 60% in the 2024-25 marketing year due to extreme drought associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon, according to a report by the US Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).

The massive year-on-year decline, which prompted Zimbabwean President Emmerson Dambudzo to declare a “state of disaster”, is the result of more than half of Zimbabwe’s planted area being wiped out by drought, the report said. Production is forecast at 635,000 tons this year, compared with 1.5 million in 2023-2024.

Domestic consumption is forecast at 1.9 million tons. Zimbabwe will therefore have to import more than 1 million tons of maize to meet local demand, according to FAS.

“As other maize producing countries in the region, including South Africa, Zambia and Malawi, have also been affected by the drought, Zimbabwe will have to supply some maize to the global market,” FAS said.

The Zimbabwean government has said it plans to source maize with the support of private mills from Brazil, Argentina, Russia and the United States.

Although Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board is required to maintain a minimum strategic stockpile of 500,000 tons of grain, which is mostly maize, FAS forecasts the stockpile will fall to 150,000 tons in 2024-25.

Maize is a staple food and the most important crop in Zimbabwe. More than 90% of the country’s maize production comes from smallholder farmers who are totally dependent on rainfall to feed the crop.

Tags: crop forecast, corn, drought, Zimbabwe