(Bloomberg) -- More than half of Zimbabwe’s rural population faces food insecurity by the first quarter of next year after an El Nino-induced drought slashed crop output, a new report showed.
“At peak, 57% of the rural households — approximately 5,894,368 individuals — will be cereal-insecure” in the three months through March 2025, according to the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Committee report seen by Bloomberg. The document, compiled Zimbabwe’s government, United Nations agencies and aid organizations, was confirmed by the Agriculture Ministry.
The El Niño weather phenomenon triggered a dry spell across southern Africa this year, leading countries including Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to declare states of national disaster because of crop failures. Zimbabwe produced 744,271 tons of corn in this year’s harvest, almost 70% less than a year earlier.
The southern African nation requires almost 593,000 tons of cereals between July and March 2025, the committee said. Quarterly cereal requirements from the National Strategic Grain Reserve will be 175,125 tons for the July-to-September period; 199,516 tons for October to December; and 218,092 tons for January to March 2025.
“There is a need for the ministry responsible for agriculture and the private sector to ensure that staple cereals will be available on the market for cereal-deficit households with the means to purchase to do so throughout the consumption year,” the committee said.
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