Mozambique may need to import almost 600,000 tonnes of food after drought and floods cut agricultural output by up to 60 percent, leaving 800,000 people facing hunger, a food security official said on Monday.
The national co-ordinator for food security and nutrition in the agriculture ministry told Reuters that floods had worsened food shortages in the southern region.
"Many people are talking of floods, but our main concern is drought which has increased the initial number of 550,000 in need of food last December to the current 800,000 as we speak now," Marcela Limbobo said in an interview. "We are expecting up to a 60 percent decline in agricultural output if we compare to last year's harvest...we'll need to import."
Like other countries in southern Africa, Mozambique has been hit by a severe drought this past year, a situation worsened by flooding along the Zambezi River and tributaries in February. That disaster killed 45 people and displaced 170,000.
Limbobo did not say where the imports may come from but Mozambique has in the past frequently bought the staple maize and wheat from neighbouring South Africa and, to a much smaller degree, Brazil. Libombo said an update of the food needs would be concluded by the end of May.