About a tenth of Zimbabwe's maize crop is estimated to have been affected by an outbreak of fall armyworm that has hit at least seven countries in the region, including South Africa, the largest maize producer on the continent.
Estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation suggest that about 10% of Zimbabwe's nearly 1.3million hectares of land under tillage were affected by the pest outbreak. Crops in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania were also affected.
The fall armyworm, which originates in Brazil, can destroy up to 70% of the crops it appears on.
Zimbabwe was spared even worse effects thanks to an intensive drive costing millions of dollars to support agricultural activity this season by President Robert Mugabe's government, and an above-normal rainy season.
This is rare good news for Zimbabwe's struggling economy, affected by high unemployment, a liquidity crunch and ominous signs of inflation on the rise.
Peter Gambara, an agricultural economist, said Zimbabwe's battle with fall armyworm was linked to its maize imports from Zambia.
"When it attacked, there was very little knowledge about its control as it tended to resist the available chemicals on the market. It is estimated that the fall armyworm attacked 130000ha of cropland, mainly maize. Although the crop damage was widespread, it is believed that most crops have since recovered and therefore the effect on yields will be minimal," he said.
On the back of a good rainy season, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa this month revised economic growth figures from 1.7% to 3.7%.
"We have never spent as much money on agriculture as we have done this season," he said.
The Zimbabwean government last year launched a command agriculture scheme to the tune of $500-million (about R6.2-billion) and supplied farming inputs to farmers under the Presidential Inputs Scheme.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development has estimated that more than twomillion tons of maize would be produced this year - enough for domestic needs.
Maize imports, mainly from South Africa and Zambia, have been stopped as Zimbabwe envisages that it will have enough in its food reserves. Such instances of self-sufficiency in food stocks have been rare since a land-invasion exercise embarked on by war veterans in 2000 disrupted agricultural activity.
Last year, Zimbabwe produced only 511,000 tons of maize, necessitating imports.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an "improved harvest" was expected in the Southern African Development Community, owing to the good rains received during the current production season.
"The only exceptions are mainly in Tanzania, parts of Madagascar and northern Mozambique. Regional maize prices are also forecast to be low because the price observed in December 2016 was 24% lower than the high reached in February 2016 when it was R5,000 per metric ton," it said.
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