All Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states except Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa will this agricultural season experience food deficit due to poor rainfall pattern caused by climate change.

Director, food agriculture and natural resources at SADC, Margaret Nyirenda, told journalists here during a press briefing at the ongoing SADC summit that the weather has not been favourable in the region, resulting in very poor rainfall and in some cases floods and prolonged dry spells.

This, she said, affected crop production, especially maize which is a staple food.

Mrs Nyirenda said athough the three countries (Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa) will not have food deficit, they will all still fall below one million metric tonnes of maize at the end of the season as compared to past seasons.

“Agriculture, food security and prudent management of natural resources continue to be at the epicentre of the SADC region. To this end, the SADC region is cognizant of the increased number of vulnerable people who require both food and other humanitarian assistance,” she said.

Mrs Nyirenda said Zambia is at the top of the chart expecting to reap over 880,000 metric tonnes with Tanzania at 810,000 metric tonnes.

She said these countries will still need assistance with 798,948 people in Zambia requiring relief food.

At the bottom of the list of the countries with a poor yield in the region are Malawi with 2.8 million people requiring assistance and Zimbabwe with 1.49 million stalked by hunger.

In Namibia, 370,000 people will be in dire need of food assistance.

“The humanitarian outlook looks challenging. It is important to note that this year, availability of maize which usually makes up more than 75 percent of the total cereal production is forecast at 31.73 million metric tonnes compared to 36.79 million metric tonnes last year.”

“The total requirement for the region this year is estimated at 32.93 million metric tonnes, reflecting an overall maize deficit of 1.20 million metric tonnes,” Mrs Nyirenda said.

Mrs Nyirenda said SADC has not yet called for humanitarian assistance from outside the region although most individual countries have already begun to look far and wide for help.

“We wish to appeal to countries that have maize surplus to be generous enough and trade the extra to those lacking. This is part of regional integration,” she said.