Chipinge, Zimbabwe – Flash floods and landslides triggered earlier this month by Cyclone Idai has destroyed large tracts of cornfields in Zimbabwe ‘s agricultural Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, heightening food insecurity in the southern African country. Farmers in the worst-affected villages of Chipinge and Chimanimani in Manicaland, more than 500km southeast of the capital, Harare, said the cyclone tore through the region on the eve of harvest, wiping out an already poor crop hit by an El Nino-induced drought. Fungai Njobwe, a 52-year-old-council worker, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that strong winds and flood waters have wrecked his corn fields in the town of Chipinge. He said he had expected that crop to feed his family of six for a year. “All our maize was destroyed and we have no hope of harvesting anything because it’s all gone,” Njobwe said. After floodwaters receded, pests had invaded the field and “are infesting the maize and eating it”, he added. Cyclone Idai, which
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