(Ecofin Agency) - Zimbabwe has banned maize imports to protect farmers’ interests and insure a good harvest this year, Agriculture’s deputy minister, Davis Mharapira, told Reuters.

The country expects to produce this year 2.1 million tons of the crop, thus four times last year’s volume (511,000 tons) which was impaired by the a severe drought induced by the El Niño weather phenomenon, one of the worst weather phenomenon ever experienced by the country since 1992-93.

The new record output should help the nation which has a demand of 1.8 million tons of maize to be self-sufficient this year, for the first time since the implementation in the beginning of the year 2000 of the land reform by the government.

To achieve this output, the Grain Marketing Board plans to encourage white maize producers by buying a ton for $390, thus three times more than price practiced in September last year by South Africa, $143.

Let’s recall that presently the nation has 180,000 tons maize of strategic reserves, significantly below required level which ranges between 500,000 and 700,000 tons.

Also, the government spent in March, $140 million to purchase maize from local farmers.

Espoir Olodo