Despite a harvest of cereals in 2005, nearly 10 million Southern Africans could face food shortage and need humanitarian assistance in the next year, it was revealed ahead of a regional summit in Gaborone from Wednesday.
Leaders of 14 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will gather at Botswana’s capital for an annual meeting to assess challenges of the region’s development. Food security will be on top agenda, officials said.
The SADC region harvested around 26 million tons of cereals in 2005, which is almost identical to the 2004 harvest and 10 percent above the past five-year average, said a document circulated at the meeting.
However, distribution of the harvest remained uneven among the SADC countries. While South Africa is enjoying an overall cereal surplus, other members have deficits ranging from 100,000 tons in Zambia to 1.62 million tons in Zimbabwe, said the document.
“The region may therefore be facing serious food security needs in some of member states, such as Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe,” it said.
More: english.people.com.cn
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