Zambia will produce 1.4 million tonnes of white maize this year, up from 1.2 million tonnes in 2003 according to a preliminary forecast, a government minister said on Tuesday.
Agriculture and Co-operatives Deputy Minister Chance Kabaghe also said the state Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had been allowed to export 50,000 tonnes of white maize from strategic reserves due to the anticipated good maize harvest.
Zambia has in the last nine months exported more than 100,000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kabaghe said total production could exceed the 1.4 million tonnes in part due to production from urban-based small-scale farmers. He added that seed maize production would rise to 26,000 tonnes from last year's 11,000 tonnes.
President Levy Mwanawasa last year said total maize production had risen to 1.4 million tonnes, from 600,000 tonnes the previous season. But Kabaghe said the final figure was 1.2 million tonnes and gave no further explanation.
Zambia experienced one season of punishing drought in 2001/2002, leaving nearly three million people in need of food aid. But rains returned to normal last year and the country has since been producing surplus maize.
Kabaghe said the production of maize had risen because the government gave more seed and pesticides to rural farmers, while commercial farmers had started machine-drying the maize grown through irrigation. "The rains have also been very good and so we see a good crop yield," Kabaghe said.
Kabaghe said the FRA had been directed to sell the 50,000 tonnes of maize from reserves because farmers were still keeping an undisclosed amount of maize, while other farmers had started to harvest the maize from the 2003/04 season.
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