Phase 3 is just two steps down from full-blown famine, the USAID-funded Fewsnet said in an emailed statement on Friday. The forecast for the region is for “below average rainfall,” it said.
Parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi will also be affected, it added.
It’s the second drought in as many years. “Many areas of the region are likely to face a second consecutive poor rainfall season and harvest,” the organisation warned.
That’s particularly bad for Zimbabwe where the “poor macro-economy is negatively affecting planting and germination rates,” it said. Millions of rural Zimbabweans are too poor to plant and farm corn, the country’s staple food. Zimbabwe faces an economic crisis where shortages of cash, fuel and electricity cripple people’s access to basic food.
“High staple prices in the region are contributing to below-average purchasing power for a significant number of poor households,” Fewsnet said, mainly because prices are trending 5% to 10% above the five-year average in South Africa, the region’s biggest producer and the source of much of the region’s milled corn.
Farmers in Zimbabwe traditionally plant corn in November when the rainy season begins. So far, they’ve received as little as 55% of normal rainfall, with the luckiest receiving 85%.
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