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Zimbabwe’s production of its staple crop, corn, is expected to drop by almost 60 percent in marketing year 2024/25 due to extreme drought conditions associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Zambia’s production of its staple crop, corn, is expected to drop by more than 50 percent in marketing year 2024/25, due to extended dry spells associated with the El Niño event. Almost a million hectares of corn have been destroyed by the drought that forced the Zambian President to declare a “National Disaster and Emergency”.

Zambia’s production of its staple crop, corn, is expected to grow by 23 percent to 3.3 million metric tons (MMT) in marketing year (MY) 2023/24, mainly due to an upsurge in planted area.

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for marketing year 2023/24 is estimated at 1.5 million metric tons. This represents an increase of five percent from the previous marketing year’s crop, mainly due to a normal rainfall season in the northern parts of the country.

Despite lower production in marketing year (MY) 2022/23, Zambia’s production of its staple crop, corn, will be sufficient to meet domestic demand. Zambia’s corn crop is forecast to decline by 25 percent to 2.7 million metric tons (MMT) in MY 2022/23, after producing a record crop 3.6 MMT in MY 2021/22.

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for marketing year (MY) 2022/23 is estimated at 1.6 million metric tons (MMT), representing a drop of 43 percent from the bumper crop of 2.7 MMT produced in MY 2021/22. Many factors contributed to the drop in production including sub-optimal weather conditions, high input costs and macro-economic challenges.

Zambia produced its largest corn crop on record in the 2021/22 MY. This bumper corn crop of 3.6 million tons follows on Zambia’s third largest corn crop of 3.4 million tons produced in the 2020/21 MY.

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for the 2021/22 marketing year (MY) is estimated at 2.7 million tons, an increase of almost 200 percent from the 907,628 tons of corn produced in the 2020/21 MY.

In the 2020/21 MY, Zambia produced its second highest corn crop on record. This bumper corn crop of 3.4 million tons is 69 percent higher than the previous season’s crop of 2.0 million tons.

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for the 2020/21 MY is estimated at 907,628 tons, 17 percent higher thanthe 2019/20 MY’s corn crop of 776,635 tons.

The Zambian government estimates a 16 percent drop in the production of corn in the 2019/20 MY to 2.0 million tons, due to drought that impacted the southern parts of the country.

Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa and can be credited with political stability and strong economic growth in the last decade.