Late Rains Jeopardise Crops in Southern Africa

Joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme are underway in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland, though a study in Zimbabwe has been "curtailed", a UN Integrated Regional Information Networks  (IRIN) report has said.

In a report on how weather has again jeopardised harvests this agricultural season, carried by allAfrica.com on June 1, IRIN said the latest Food, Crops and Shortages report by the Global Information and Early Warning System noted that with  the “agricultural season drawing to a close…the first half of the season was characterised by delayed, inadequate and erratic rains.”

Harvest prospects in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and parts of Malawi and Angola were "unfavourable due to dry weather conditions, especially during the first half of the season".

The results of the CFSAMs will be finalised this month, IRIN said.

02 June 2004