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Edgar Vhera

Correspondent

THE country’s import substitution push is beginning to yield positive results with the Government expecting the current winter wheat crop to yield 395 000 tonnes from 77 606ha planted this winter season.

This will be enough to satiate domestic demand that usually swings between 350 000 and 450 000 tonnes per year. The country had been targeting to plant 75 000ha of the cereal this year.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John Basera recently confirmed that the country had surpassed the initial target of 75 000ha.

Dr Basera’s comments come in the wake of growing calls by both Government and other stakeholders for the country to be inward-looking to achieve self-sufficiency in view of worldwide supply disruption as a result of geo-political developments in eastern Europe.

Government’s interventions through the Presidential Input Scheme (PIS) coupled with private sector involvement under the Food Crop Contractors Association (FCCA) as well as funding under the CBZ Agro-Yield, AFC Land Bank and self-financing have enabled the country to reach this milestone.

Various players in the wheat industry set the following targets for the 2022 wheat season: CBZ Agro-Yield – 36 500ha, AFC – 10 000ha, FCCA – 23 000ha and PIS – 5 500ha to give a cumulative total of 75 000ha.

The PIS planned to wholly fund 5 500ha to the tune of US$9 293 820 was subsequently oversubscribed with more than 10 000 prospective farmers registering to grow wheat. The Government paid attention to the prospective farmers’ needs and increased the sponsored area by 78 percent to around 10 000ha. Wheat farmers under the FCCA grouping followed suit with a 24 percent increase in planted area to around 30 000ha.

In a telephone interview, Food Crop Contractors Association (FCCA) chairman Mr Graeme Murdoch said: “In 2021 our members planted 15 500ha of wheat and produced 85 000 tonnes yet this season a total of 30 000ha have been put under wheat with an expected yield of 180 000 tonnes.”

Farmers accessing the AFC funding facility also had a 3 percent increase in planted area whilst a negative trend was noted from farmers receiving CBZ funding with planted area falling by about 58 percent from a high of 44 446 to 18 819ha. The overall wheat area increased by about 1 percent from the initial 75 000 to 75 452ha. The 2022 winter wheat output is expected to increase by 3 percent to around 396 000 tonnes from the targeted 383 500 tonnes, thanks to the manoeuvres of self-financed farmers who planted 8 027ha with an expected yield of around 36 000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, statistics availed by the chief director in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Professor Obert Jiri have shown that provinces with the exception of Mash Central have surpassed the hectarage they planted last season.

Matabeleland North recorded a 167 percent increase in planted area marking the biggest leap and is followed by Mashonaland East and Manicaland with 66 and 51 percent respectively.

Planting on time enables farmers to escape frost conditions during critical growth stages like flowering and high disease and pest pressure during the months of August and September when the crop is in post anthesis stage (grain filling). Early planting also allows the tillering stage to coincide with low temperatures during the month of June. Low temperatures and even frost at this stage promote tillering.

Observing the planting window allows farmers to harvest their crop before the start of the next cropping season as rain induces sprouting in wheat, thereby reducing the falling numbers, which affects the baking quality.

Wheat is the second most important cereal crop after maize. In past years, wheat annual imports of up to 80 percent were brought in to augment local shortfalls. In Zimbabwe wheat is mainly used as a human food in the form of bread, paste products, breakfast cereals, cake and many other products.

Whereas wheat consumption demand has dramatically increased due to population growth, increase in urban population and changes in consumer tastes and consumption pattern, local production supply had not yet met demand, with the gap between production and consumption being filled by imports.

The importing of wheat involves the expenditure of foreign currency, amplifying the call by Government for local farmers to increase production as a healthy way of import substitution.

Over the years Government has made strategic interventions to drum up wheat production and the current season will likely see production overtake consumption with the resultant benefit to the country of saving foreign currency.

Statistics from TradeMap show that Zimbabwe is ranked 74 in terms of global world wheat and meslin importing countries, importing wheat to the tune of US$102, 719, 000 for 2020. Russia, USA, Canada, France and Ukraine were the 5 top most wheat and meslin exporting countries in the world in decreasing order in 2020.