HARVEST PROSPECTS DETERIORATE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA FOLLOWING PROLONGED DRY SPELLS AND SEVERE FLOODS IN SEVERAL PARTS - 6 March 2001
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With about two months to the end of the cropping season in southern Africa, harvest prospects have deteriorated reflecting adverse weather in several parts. The season generally started normally with timely, abundant and well distributed rains, except in a few locations. However, a prolonged dry spell in January in parts of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe, stressed crops. Rains resumed from mid-February providing relief to previously dry areas, but were r ather excessive in parts causing flooding in low-lying areas in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. For Mozambique, which had not yet fully recovered from the worst floods in living memory last year, the fresh floods affected some 400 000 persons, mostly in the Zambezi valley, but also in other low-lying areas in the central provinces of Sofala, Tete and Zambezia. In Malawi, 200 000 people have been displaced, mainly in southern areas along the Shire River, while in Zambia flooding has occurred along the Zambezi and Luangwa rivers. Besides displacing people, the floods have submerged crops in the affected areas, compromising the food security of large numbers of families who now urgently need humanitarian assistance. However, so far the impact of the floods is not a significant threat to national food security. In Mozambique, the area lost is estimated at about 22 000 hectares, against 167 000 hectares lost to last year's devastating floods, which mainly affected southern provinces. B ut should the heavy rains continue in the coming weeks harvest prospects in Malawi and Mozambique could deteriorate.