(Bloomberg) -- Tanzania will sell 650,000 tons of corn to Zambia after El Niño brought a severe dry spell in the neighboring country. 

The state-run National Food Reserve Agency signed an agreement in Dar es Salaam with its Zambian counterpart Saturday. 

“NFRA will sell the maize to Zambia within the next eight months,” Tanzania’s Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe told reporters. 

Bashe said the East African nation plans to export 1 million tons of corn this year to neighbors facing shortages of the staple food. Tanzania has produced 8.1 million tons of corn this season, against a national demand of less than 6 million tons, according to its Agriculture Ministry.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema declared the drought a national disaster in February and made an appeal for international aid in April. The government has received commitments totaling about $500 million from its partners to deal with the effects of the drought, according to Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa. It needs about $900 million this year.

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