HARARE, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe government has assured the nation that it has enough grain reserves to last until next year's harvest in April should crops fail this year.
The country has received erratic rains since the beginning of the rainfall season last October, triggering fears of another drought this year.
Most of the dry land crops are showing signs of severe moisture stress due to a prolonged dry spell, with crops in the southern part of the country now a write off.
The staple maize and tobacco, the country's largest export earner, have been the most affected crops.
"While we acknowledge that we had below average rainfall so far this summer cropping season, people should not panic because we have more than 500,000 tonnes of maize in our strategic grain reserve. This can sustain us for close to a year," agriculture deputy minister Davis Marapira was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald newspaper on Monday.
The minister said the nation will manage to harvest some maize as some of the crop was in better condition and some under irrigation.
Zimbabwe recorded a bumper maize harvest of over 2 million tonnes in the 2016/17 farming season, more than its requirement of 1.8 million tonnes annually.
Despite the bumper harvest, the World Food Program said about 1.1 million people in the country would require food aid during the lean season from January to March 2018.
The number is set to rise sharply if the bulk of the crop is destroyed by hot weather.
