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Elita Chikwati  Senior Agriculture Reporter 

Wheat deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board have reached 162 234 tonnes, with rains now affecting the movement of the cereal from farms to depots. 

The bulk of the wheat being delivered is of the premium grade. 

GMB chief executive, Mr Rockie Mutenha, yesterday said the parastatal was receiving a minimum of 5 000 tonnes of wheat from farmers daily. 

“To date we have received 162 234 tonnes of wheat,” he said. “59 percent of the wheat is premium, while 41 percent is constituted by other grades.”

Wheat farmers have harvested 33,5 percent of the crop planted during this winter cropping season as farmers intensify harvesting so they can switch to the summer season crops. 

According to Agritex’s latest weekly update, by October 29, farmers had harvested 116 726 tonnes of the cereal. 

The Agritex update shows that 22 277 hectares of wheat had been harvested by October 29. 

This winter cropping season, 44 295 hectares of wheat were planted under the National Enhanced Agriculture Productivity Scheme (NEAPS), commonly known as Command Agriculture. 

Of this, 14 657 hectares have been harvested, giving an average yield of 5 tonnes per hectare. 

The hectarage harvested so far saw farmers getting 73 447 tonnes of wheat from the NEAPS programme. 

Under the NEAPS, Mashonaland East province had the highest average yield of 6,8 tonnes per hectare, while Mashonaland has recorded an average yield of 5,8 tonnes per hectare. 

For the Presidential wheat programme, farmers planted 5 477 37 hectares and of this 1 620 hectares have been harvested, with the yield averaging 3,5 tonnes per hectare.

So far, 5 693 tonnes of wheat have come from the Presidential Inputs Scheme. 

The private sector supported a hectarage of 16 662 hectares and farmers have so far harvested 5 999 hectares from that. 

The average yield in the private sector is 6,3 tonnes, with Mashonaland East recording an average yield of 7,7 tonnes per hectare, while Mashonaland Central is at 6,3 tonnes per hectare. 

GMB has designated 18 depots around the country as collection points for wheat, with about 300 000 tonnes expected from this year’s winter cropping season.