Executive Summary
Distribution of rainfall was good throughout the country. Significant rains were received around mid December for most parts of the country.
A dry spell set in around the end of January through to the time of the verification exercise around the 8th to 15th of February 2009.
Major crop inputs such as cereal seeds, fertilizers and fuel were in critical short supply. The limited quantities available on the open market were priced beyond the reach of many farmers.
While availability of subsidised fuel was very low this season, the availability of fuel on the open market was generally better than the previous season but the high cost of the fuel was prohibitive for most farmers.
Large tracts of land were left fallow in the A2 and Large Scale Commercial Farming Areas.
The total area planted to maize for this 2008/09 season is estimated to be 1 507 698 ha which is 14% below last season's area which was 1 749 590 ha. This season 33 % (497 540 ha) was planted in late November 2008, 49% (738 772 ha) in the second half of December 2008 and 18% (271 386 ha) in the middle of January 2009.
About 12 927 MT (48 % of the seed supplied last year) maize seed was availed through Government, SADC, NGOs and other input support programmes.
These programmes contributed 34% of the area under maize. Consequently, the remaining 66% of the hectarage was planted using carry over seed, retained, grain from food aid, purchases and seed from other sources.
Smallholder farming sectors (Communal Areas (CA), Old Resettlement (OR), A1 and Small Scale Commercial Areas (SSCA)) contributed more than 90% of the area planted to maize with communal sector contributing about 64%.
The bulk of the maize crop was in late vegetative to early mature stages. Despite the critical shortages of fertilisers the crop condition was generally fair to good in most parts of the country.
The area planted to other crops is summarised in table below.
|
Crop
|
2007/08 (ha)
|
2008/09 (ha)
|
Change (%)
|
|
Sorghum
|
277,575
|
367,220
|
+32
|
|
Finger Millet
|
96,128
|
106,141
|
+10
|
|
Pearl Millet
|
141,970
|
162,566
|
+15
|
|
Soya bean
|
61,596
|
71,574
|
+16
|
|
Tobacco
|
53,725
|
46,288
|
-14
|
|
Cotton
|
465,055
|
316,656
|
-32
|
|
Groundnuts
|
358,809
|
322,796
|
-10
|
|
Sunflower
|
56,411
|
72,506
|
+29
|
|
Sugar bean
|
48,609
|
43,879
|
-10
|
Livestock was in a fair to good body condition across all species. However high incidences of tick borne diseases due to erratic dipping.
Anthrax disease outbreaks were reported in some parts of the country.
Severe depletion of livestock was reported in most parts of the country as households disposed livestock for grain due to food insecurity.