Zimbabwe's food crisis will worsen this year because of a drought that has decimated maize and other key crops, a government minister said on Tuesday amid rising tension in the economically-depressed African country. Zimbabwe is struggling with an economic crisis marked by chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, the world's highest inflation at above 1,700 percent, soaring unemployment and increasing poverty.

"The government has declared 2007 a drought year," the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said on Tuesday, quoting Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo. "The Minister ... told ZBC news that the dry spell experienced this season has badly impacted on agriculture, and crops, especially maize, in most parts of the country are a write-off," it added.

Once a leading agricultural exporter in southern Africa, Zimbabwe has relied on food imports since 2001, when President Robert Mugabe ramped up a controversial programme to seize white commercial farms and redistribute them to blacks. Critics blame the farm seizures for a sharp decline in agricultural production in Zimbabawe.

While the government said it was still assessing the damage to the 2006/7 growing seasons, analysts said its admission that drought would worsen the food shortages meant that prices could surge beyond the reach of many Zimbabweans. Food accounts for one third of the consumer basket used to calculate inflation, which the International Monetary Fund says will top 5,000 percent in Zimbabwe by the end of the year.

Zimbabwe central bank governor Gideon Gono said earlier this month that Mugabe's land reforms had contributed to acute food shortages. On Tuesday the agriculture minister said some of the nation's traditional green belts were affected by late planting, while many maize growers had planted crops that were not controlled by government and its price caps.

Maize, the country's staple crop, is only sold to a state grain agency, which distributes it to millers. The government is scheduled to set a new maize producer price next week. The United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service has projected Zimbabwe's maize harvest at 850,000 tonnes this year, less than half the amount it needs to meet domestic consumption.

Tension is running high in the southern African country as Mugabe's government intensifies a crackdown on political opponents and the economic crisis worsens. Analysts say the worsening economy is the biggest challenge to the veteran leader's 27-year rule.
(Por MacDonald Dzirutwe, Planet Ark, 21/03/2007)