{"id":9094,"date":"2012-03-19T15:21:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T13:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/zimbabwe-writes-off-a-third-of-maize-crop-deficit-looms\/"},"modified":"2012-03-19T15:21:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T13:21:45","slug":"zimbabwe-writes-off-a-third-of-maize-crop-deficit-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zimbabwe-writes-off-a-third-of-maize-crop-deficit-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe writes off a third of maize crop, deficit looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">HARARE, March 19<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe faces a huge grain<br \/>\ndeficit this year after a third of the current maize crop was<br \/>\nwritten off due to a prolonged dry spell, state media reported<br \/>\non Monday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The southern African country, once a regional bread basket,<br \/>\nhas struggled to feed itself since 2000 when President Robert<br \/>\nMugabe embarked on the seizure of white-owned commercial farms<br \/>\nto resettle landless blacks.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the state-controlled<br \/>\nHerald newspaper that the government had halted sales from its<br \/>\nstrategic grain reserves after a state crop assessment showed<br \/>\nthat a third of the 1.689 million hectares put under maize had<br \/>\nbeen declared a write-off.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Although the production of the staple maize has rebounded<br \/>\nfrom its low of 400,000 tonnes in 2007\/08 to 1.35 million tonnes<br \/>\nin 2010\/11, the country still struggles to meet its annual grain<br \/>\nconsumption of nearly 2 million tonnes.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe is likely to resort to grain imports, although<br \/>\nthere were fears that regional suppliers South Africa, Zambia<br \/>\nand Malawi may not be in a position to export.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are indications that our neighbouring countries are<br \/>\nlikely to have grain shortages. We are calling farmers to&#8230;show<br \/>\nhow much in terms of grain they are likely to deliver,&#8221; Made was<br \/>\nquoted as saying.\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Jason Neely)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HARARE, March 19 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe faces a huge grain deficit this year after a third of the current maize crop was written off due to a prolonged dry spell, state media reported on Monday. The southern African country, once a regional bread basket, has struggled to feed itself since 2000 when President Robert Mugabe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}