Drought, rising fertilizer prices and a lack of government support has left 2.2 million need of food aid in Zimbabwe.

“Five months after President Robert Mugabe won elections to extend his 33-year rule, the southern African nation faces its biggest food shortages since 2008. Last season’s crop of corn, the nation’s staple, was poleaxed first by flooding and then by drought,” reports Latham and Franz Wild for Bloomberg.

Corn production dropped to less than half of what the country needs this year, according to a Sept. 3 report by the government-run Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee. As a result of this, average prices for the grain have increased to 53 cents a kilogram (2.2 pounds) from 33 cents a year ago, according to the report.

“There is a critical food shortage in the country and government is trying to import food together with some non-governmental organizations,” Permanent Secretary for Public Service Ngoni Masoka told lawmakers on Nov. 18. “We have a plan for a major food deficit mitigation program.”

Because of a lack of homegrown corn Zimbabwe has imported about 130,000 tons of corn since May 1 from neighboring South Africa alone, according to South African Grain Information Service data. This is more than in any full season since 2008-09. And, Zambia has also promised to ship 150,000 tons of corn to the country, according to the African Development Bank in an Sept. 17 report.

The state-run, cash-strapped Grain Marketing Board is unable to pay for food staples so small-scale farmers have shifted toward cash crops. For example, production of tobacco, most of which is usually grown by small-scale farmers, rose to 166.7 million kilograms this year, from 48.3 million kilograms in 2008, according to the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, earning the country about $612 million.