Tanzania will sell 650,000 tonnes of maize to Zambia, a senior government official said on Sunday, in a deal intended to help the southern African country reduce food shortages caused by a prolonged drought.

Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said the two countries had signed an agreement on supplying the grain, expected to feed about 7 million people in Zambia.

Zambia is in the grip of a drought that has reduced food production and lowered power generation, pushing the government to import food from neighbouring countries.

"The agreement will be implemented within a period of eight months and will help Tanzania earn $250 million," Bashe said in a post on the social media platform X.

The agreement was signed by Andrew Komba, the director general of Tanzania's state-owned National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), and Zambia's national disaster coordinator, Gabriel Pollen.

The maize consignment, Bashe said, will be supplied from four NFRA warehouses in the southwest of the country.

Tanzania is one of the largest producers of grains and cereals such as rice and maize in East Africa, a significant amount of which is exported to regional markets.

(Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Timothy Heritage)