Food Shortages Possible In South Africa

Lack of rain could reduce harvests by half in parts of southern Africa, forcing governments to dip into stockpiles and import cereals, a regional monitoring group warned Wednesday.

Angola, northern Mozambique and Tanzania received enough rain to produce reasonable harvests, said the Early Warning Unit of the 11-nation Southern African Development Community.

But in South Africa, corn harvests were forecast at 6 million tons, compared to 12 million tons last year. Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and Zambia were lso expecting below normal harvests, the early warning unit said.In 1992, after the worst drought in southern Africa this century, millions of tons of corn were imported from Argentina, Canada and the United States.