Southern Africa to face severe food crisis, high staple food prices by September

The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) has warned of severe food insecurity across the Southern Africa region in 2016-2017 after two years of consecutive drought which have limited crop production. In a new special report entitled “Illustrating the extent and severity of the 2015-2016 drought,” Fewsnet said although temporary relief was expected from the harvests expected in April/May, the GEOGLAM Early Warning Crop Monitor (EWCM) had shown that as of February 28, crop failure had been confirmed in Lesotho, Swaziland, southern Mozambique, southern Zimbabwe and eastern Botswana.