Zimbabwe, which is recovering from drought and battling a pest that threatens its maize crop, has budgeted $140-million (R1.8-billion) to buy maize from farmers for its strategic reserve, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told parliament yesterday.
Harare is holding 250000 tonnes of maize in strategic reserves, half of its optimal requirements, enough to last six months, the minister said.
Zimbabwe has relied on maize imports and food aid to meet domestic demand of 1.8million tons. Critics blame the shortage on President Robert Mugabe's seizures of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.
Made told a parliamentary committee farmers planted 1.2million hectares of maize for the 2016/17 season, a 55% increase over last season when an El Nino-triggered drought hit plantings and production.
He said the government's main focus at the moment is on containing an outbreak of fall armyworms, an invasive South American pest that threatens maize crops from Congo to South Africa.
Made said the fall armyworm was "most elusive and difficult to deal with" and might be spreading.
"If it goes into sugarcane, it can stay there undetected and breed," he said, adding the pest could also harm fruit and vegetables if not contained.