Zimbabwe warns of bread, flour shortages

Zimbabwe warns of bread, flour shortages

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By Staff Reporter

LESS than a tenth of the wheat crop targeted for this year has been planted with just two weeks of the planting season remaining, the Zimbabwe government acknowledged Wednesday, blaming acute shortages of cash, fertilizer, gasoline and tractors.

The Agriculture Ministry warned that shortages of bread and flour would worsen, adding to the misery in a nation where basics have become luxuries and hyperinflation has topped 2,200 percent.

The admission about the wheat crop immediately raised questions over the announcement earlier this month that households would face increased power cuts in order to give wheat farmers priority power supplies for irrigation.

Water and power outages occur daily, affecting homes and industry, and have been getting worse.

Zimbabwe imports up to 40 percent of its power from neighboring nations. Shortages of coal have shut down some power-generating facilities. Like most state and private enterprises, the utility also has reported shortages of hard currency for equipment and spare parts to keep domestic services running.

Maize is by far the most important crop in Zimbabwe, so a weak wheat crop planting is unlikely to lead to mass starvation. However, poor rains and a lack of fertilizer and other supplies are expected to wreak havoc on the next maize harvest.

A U.N. team is visiting Zimbabwe to assess the state of its crops and predict the country's food needs, said James Breen, a crop specialist with the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Agriculture Ministry said about 8,000 hectares (19,200 acres) of winter wheat had been planted — far short of the targeted crop of 76,000 hectares (182,000 acres).

Planting more wheat after May 31 was "not worth it" because seasonal conditions then will drastically reduce yields, the agriculture secretary, Shadrek Mlambo, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture.

James Jonga, head of the state District Development Fund, told lawmakers it was impossible to till 2,000 hectares (4,800 acres) of wheat a day to meet the May 31 deadline.

"It needs at least 1,000 tractors and we do not have that kind of equipment," he said.

The Agriculture Ministry said at least 240 tractors available to wheat farmers had broken down, and farmers have received less than half the gasoline they need for the equipment still working.

In many areas of Zimbabwe, once self sufficient in wheat, mechanized farming has been replaced by cattle-drawn plowing since the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy.

With Zimbabwe suffering the worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, staples — including bread, medicines and most basic goods — are in short supply. A black market in scarce commodities is thriving, with sugar fetching at least ten times the government-fixed price.

Official inflation of 2,200 percent, the highest in the world, does not factor into black market prices. Business executives estimate that real across-the-board inflation has already reached 5,000 percent.

The state central bank estimates that at least 3.5 million Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring South Africa; Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, and other countries.

Most fugitives to South Africa seek menial jobs. But the Zimbabwe Health Services Board reported earlier this month that 42 percent of locally trained doctors and 34 percent of nurses also have found jobs abroad, leaving behind poor salaries, housing and working conditions beset by shortages of equipment and drugs in the collapsing government health service.

The University of Zimbabwe says it has about half the 1,200 academic staff it needs.

"We are now faced with a situation whereby some departments are nearly nonfunctional. I do not want to use the word that they have closed," Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura told the official state media recently. - AP
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