Abstract
Abstract This paper examines food production and price policies in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1989 with a particular reference to maize. The study evaluates the extent to which the current maize crisis in the country could be attributed to drought. The analysis shows that the price policy regimes in Zimbabwe during the 1980s distorted maize producer incentives and embedded subsidies that were questionable on an equitable ground. The policy myopia discouraged the large-scale commercial farmers from maize production and committed the task of supplying the country's staple food in the hands of drought-prone, limited-resource communal area farmers, thereby risking the country's potential for food security. Thus, the government prepared the stage for the current food crisis, so the drought merely aggravated the effect of short-sighted policies. Given a carefully drawn policy structure, Zimbabwe has the capacity to feed its people and minimise the effect of drought on the food distribution system.
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