Zambia is experiencing its worst drought since 1981, but its government insists that a state of national emergency will not be declared.
Neither will donor assistance be accepted. A Southern Africa Development Community report last month, forecast 2.3 million Zambians will be food-insecure by March after large parts of the southern and western areas of the country received the lowest rainfall since 1981.
Over the same period, the report forecast Zambia will experience an 888,000-ton cereal deficit.
The Zambian government says it has enough corn, the country’s staple food, to last until the next season and won’t need to import.
Retail prices for the cornflour that Zambians consume mostly are already the highest since at least, 2003, according to data from the national statistics agency.
In July, prices were 41 per cent higher than the same time last year, helping to push inflation to 8.8 per cent, the highest since November 2016.