Tanzania has done a remarkable progress on food production which had put the country among the top three SADC member states with food surpluses that could be used in trading with the rest of countries within the region.
The Director of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) for SADC, Margaret Nyirenda, revealed this yesterday when briefing journalists on the status of food security in the region, prior to the 35th heads of state and government in Gaborone, Botswana.
Nyirenda noted that the other 11 SADC member states failed to access food surplus due to the impacts of climate change, drought and floods, and therefore insisting on the need for its mitigation.
Apart from Tanzania which had surpluses of 0.81 million metric tonnes, Nyirenda pointed out the other SADC member states were South Africa with 0.31 million metric tonnes as well as Zambia that holds 0.88 million metric tonnes.
She noted that the situation could be used as an opportunity for Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia to trade on agricultural crops with other countries within the SADC regional integration.
Nyirenda said the SADC was taking necessary measures to provide food and non-food reliefs to the 27.41 million vulnerable people within the entire region and support them to recover from the disasters.
However she expressed that the SADC had promoted and scaled up appropriate climate smart technologies on agriculture, energy, water and other relevant areas which mitigate against the impact of climate change, hence improve food security in the region.
Admittedly, the 2014/15 rain session was generally poor in most parts of the SADC region with prolonged drought spells in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zimbawe, Madagascar, Malawi na Mozambique.
According to Nyirenda, the poor rainfall would lead to an unsatisfactory overall regional food security in 2015/16 with general cereal deficit of 6.33 million tonnes compared to a surplus of 1.2 million tonnes in 2014/15.
The availability of cereals which comprise maize, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum within the region was estimated at 40.23 million tonnes, representing a drop of 22per cent from 45.62 million tonnes last year. She emphasized that this year’s availability of maize which usually makes up more than 75 per cent of total cereals production was forecasted at 31.73 million tonnes compared to the last year’s 36.79 million tonnes.
However, the cassava production within six SADC member states had dropped from 48.06million tonnes last year to the current 44.80 million tonnes.
Source: The Guardian
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