The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned yesterday that near drought in parts of Zimbabwe could badly damage the maize harvest and render a precarious staple food problem critical within months, reports AFP.

“Extreme dry weather in several provinces of Zimbabwe is likely to cause serious damage to the main 2008 maize harvest,” the agency said in a statement on the southern African country, whose people are still awaiting full results of an electoral challenge to President Robert Mugabe on March 29.

“While excessive rains persisted during December and January causing serious flooding on some low lying areas, several provinces have been facing prolonged dry spells since February,” FAO said, adding that the “food security situation in Zimbabwe is critical”.

The statement, released at a time of high post-electoral tension, noted that “with the world’s highest annual rate of inflation, above 100,000 percent in December 2007, food insecurity for about one-third of the vulnerable population keeps worsening.”

Food shortages in Zimbabwe’s stores have been frequent, while FAO said that of “the estimated 1.03 million tonnes of cereal import requirement for 2007/08, some 839,000 tonnes, or about 81 percent of the total, have been reportedly been imported so far.” Domestic maize growth and yields will be hard hit at harvest time in May and June, the agency anticipated.

It noted that weather difficulties for farmers had been compounded by “shortages of key inputs, including fertiliser, seed, fuel and tillage power.” Floods had caused damage in low-lying regions, the statement said.

“With dwindling foreign exchange reserves and shrinking purchasing power, another year of low cereal production would severely affect the food security condition for a significant part of the population unless substantial assistance is provided,” the United Nations body said.

Mugabe, 84, is still regarded by many in Zimbabwe as a hero for the part he played in securing independence from Britain in 1980, but he has presided over a period of economic freefall since launching land reforms in 2000.

White farmers were then driven off their land in a plan intended to give it to landless blacks, but Mugabe’s critics charge that some of the best farmland ended up in the hands of high-placed aides, while production plunged into decline.

The farmers’ union has stated that the same tactics have begun again while the country awaits the result of the polls, while Mugabe’s main foe, Morgan Tsvangirai, has accused him of deploying troops to enforce his rule.

Tsvangirai claims to have beaten Mugabe outright in the presidential poll, but the ruling ZANU-PF party is demanding a run-off and has also called for a partial recount in parliamentary elections won by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

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