Tobacco is responsible for some 60 percent of export earnings, with sugar, tea and coffee contributing about 5 percent each. .
The inability of the elected government to control the budget and to deliver effective policies has frustrated attempts to achieve economic stability. However, since 1998/99 fiscal management has been more consistent. GDP has grown at an average of 4.2 percent annually since 1997 although it was estimated to fall to 3.2 percent in 2001. Annual inflation reached 44 percent in 1998 and has since halved. .
According to a 1998 survey, 65 percent of the population was living below the poverty line. Today, it is estimated that up to seven million people may be on the edge of famine and that between 100 and 150 people are dying from starvation each day. Theft, unseasonable weather and low labor availability have led to a poor April maize harvest and it is estimated that there will be a shortfall of 750,000 metric tons.
Traditional methods here consist of hoeing by hand. Everything is done by hand, and mostly by women. Planting at the beginning of rainy season (right about now) and harvesting for most crops next June. The rainy season is also the hot season plenty of mosquitoes and flies. The fields are small (about ΒΌ acre) and there will be a couple of fields that make up a farm. They burn the grass and stubble before they turn the soil with their hoe. One reason they burn is to reduce the labor required to prepare the seedbed. The fields are becoming extremely depleted due to planting year after year never adding fertilizer or compost and burning all of the organic matter. Harvesting is done by hand and transported to their storage bins, which are large round baskets woven out of bamboo. (2 meters across and two meters high), usually off of the ground to keep out the rats. Maize seeds are stored in baskets that are off the ground too. but have fires built under them to keep out the weevils until next years time to plant.
