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Zambia plans to import maize from South America as drought is expected to cut the 2015/2016 maize crop by a third, local media reported on Wednesday.

"The government is looking for possibilities of importing maize from South America as the entire region does not have enough maize stocks," President Edgar Lungu is quoted as saying in the Zambia Daily Mail.

Zambia's maize stocks would only last until June, Lungu told the newspaper. Lungu's spokesman Amos Chanda was not immediately available to comment.

The southern African nation harvested 2.6 million tonnes of the staple in the 2014/2015 season and drought could slash this year's output by 30 percent.

Millions of people in southern Africa face hunger because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern.