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ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: ZAMBIANS FACE HUNGER DESPITE MAIZE SURPLUS.
by Isabel Chimangeni
LUSAKA, Feb. 1, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- Zambia expects a maize surplus this season but it is still unlikely that the food will reach many of the 58 percent of Zambians who are classified as extremely poor.
The ministry of agriculture recently released a national food balance sheet showing that the country will have a surplus of 160,000 metric tonnes of maize during the 2006-2007 growing season. In the 2005-2006 season, the output was 63 percent above the previous season and 54 percent above the five-year average.
Only a few years ago, such a surplus of Zambians' main staple crop would have seemed an unreachable dream. Successive droughts had caused a food crisis in the eastern and southern parts of the country, the main maize-producing areas.
But production changed dramatically after President Levy Mwanawasa took over from Frederick Chiluba in 2001. Mwanawasa, a commercial farmer himself, prioritized agriculture and reintroduced agricultural subsidies that Chiluba had abolished in the 1990s.
He also promoted innovations like mixed farming and conservation farming. Mwanawasa rejected genetically modified (GM) maize and encouraged farmers to grow non-GM maize, resulting in bumper harvests for the past three consecutive years.
As a result, Zambia has been exporting maize to neighboring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Angola, Malawi and Zimbabwe (which used to be the food basket for the region). .
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Source: HighBeam Research, ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: ZAMBIANS FACE HUNGER DESPITE MAIZE SURPLUS.