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Locadia Mavhudzi Midlands Correspondent
Crop specialists in the Midlands Province have started training farmers registered under the Command Wheat Programme on effective ways to improve productivity.

Midlands Provincial crop and livestock officer Mrs Madeliner Magwenzi said training of registered farmers is now underway and farmers have started planting as the province is targeting 2 500 hectares.

“We are intending to increase the hectarage of winter wheat and we are currently training farmers who registered for the command programme as others are new farmers”

Mrs Magwenzi said they were targeting large commercial farmers and those with irrigation facilities to improve their tonnage per hectare.

“Training is wholesome, from land preparing and soil conditioning to the wheat critical stages such as crop establishment, tillering, flowering and grain filling.

“Wheat yields are greater in well drained soils and it is possible for a farmer in Highveld areas to get up to four tonnes per hectare,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said the training is going to be a continuous process throughout the production stages to avoid potential losses.

“We will continue engaging farmers at every stage .We are also appealing for consistent supply of electricity so that farmers can irrigate the crop without challenges,” she said.

Government is set to increase winter wheat hectarage by 20 percent this year from 70 000 hectares last year to 90 000 hectares this year as the country seeks to restore self-sustenance.

Producing wheat locally will result in forex savings, which would otherwise be channelled to other more productive related priorities of the economy.

The Command Agriculture programme on wheat has also been complemented by contract farming by private companies.

Wheat is the second most important cereal after maize in the food security basket in Zimbabwe and the country requires 400 000 to 450 000 tonnes of wheat annually.