Zimbabwe is now expecting a maize harvest of 1.1 million tonnes next year. This will leave it with a huge food gap. The landlocked nation needs at least 1.8 million tonnes, not counting animal feed.

This comes as El Nino is expected to disrupt harvests across the region, Zimbabwe’s staple maize harvest us expected to halv3 to 1.1 million tonnes in 2024 due to an El Nino-induced drought, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Wednesday, flagging a huge grain deficit that threatens food security in poor households.

The Southern African country requires about 1.8 million tonnes of maize annualy for human consumption qnd projected a 2.3 million ton harvest in 2023.

El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon in which surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific become unusually warm, causing changes in global weather patterns, is expected to hit crop yields during the 23/24 farming season.

Speaking on the sidelines if a World Bank briefing on Zimbabwe’s 224 economic prospects in Harare, Ncube saud the country’s agriculture sector would shrink by 4.9% next year due to the El Nino-induced drought.