Zimbabwe left with 8 months maize supply, Minister Made

Zimbabwe's imported maize stock is only enough to feed millions of locals for the next eight months, Agriculture minister Joseph Made has said.

 Made said this while giving a ministerial update at the ongoing Zanu PF annual conference in Masvingo today.

Earlier on, President Robert Mugabe had said current rains point to a promising farming season.

'Our conference is taking place at a time when the heavens have been opened that point to a very promising farming season" said Mugabe.

Made told delegates that imports amount to  700 metric tonnes.

"Maize imports are almost on target of reaching the 700 metric tonnes target which is sufficient enough to feed our nation for the next eight months.

" I am happy to say our farmers contributed 500 metric tonnes of this figure, which is a huge improvement".

Meanwhile, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira disclosed that some province are holding on to huge rice tonnage donated by the Chinese government.

According to Mupfumira, government still has several tonnes of rice in stock.
"Some provinces have not distributed rice to the people. Each province was allocated  1750 tonnes of rice.

 "We are still holding on to huge quantities but we cannot release those if provinces are still holding on to previous allocations".

 In September, Zimbabwe took delivery of  5 500 tonnes of rice from China to help alleviate hunger after a drought that has left up to 4 million locals  in need of food aid.

The consignment was part of the total 19,000 tonnes worth $24.6 million donated by the Chinese government to Zimbabwe.

China has provided five consignments of emergency food aid to Zimbabwe over the last 10 years worth millions dollars to help the country cope with food shortages.