×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Let’s collaborate on wheat: Govt

Agriculture
With the global wheat supply having been seriously disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries that have provided Zimbabwe with over 100 000 tonnes of the grain annually, local supplies are now being threatened by the incessant power outages.

BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA LANDS, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development minister Anxious Masuka has called for increased collaboration between government and wheat farmers as electricity and water challenges continue disrupting production.

This comes amid heightened load-shedding, triggering more power outages which have affected irrigated winter wheat.

With the global wheat supply having been seriously disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries that have provided Zimbabwe with over 100 000 tonnes of the grain annually, local supplies are now being threatened by the incessant power outages.

The erratic rainfall pattern during the 2021/22 season also exacerbated matters meaning that water bodies supplying wheat farmers did not receive adequate runoff to sustain some of the farmers throughout the winter wheat season which ends around September.

“Government announced that there should be collaboration between farmers and the government in the production of wheat. During this cropping season, the wheat that we have produced as a nation has surpassed what has been planted in the past,” Masuka told Parliament last week on Thursday.

“There are things that are needed for a good harvest. We need water, electricity and machinery. Regarding water, this is a pertinent question which is very specific to a farm in a specific area. Government has a policy that there should be a stop order that when they take their wheat to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), they are given money for electricity, water and other overheads. If that has not been done, farmers are urged to do that so that we have good harvests.”

Zimbabwe’s macro-economic situation remains highly volatile, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has had a negative impact on the availability and prices of key commodities such as fuel, wheat, cooking oil and fertiliser.

The price pressure has been worsened by a depreciating local currency which has been badly mauled by inflation pegged at 191,6% in June.

Thus, farmers are struggling to meet their output targets owing to these challenges, leaving them struggling to raise funds to meet energy and input costs.

“What we did is that we know that farmers who planted their wheat through the Presidential Input Scheme and other schemes were empowered with implements and inputs for free,” Masuka further indicated.

“The second batch of farmers who also went through the Government Guarantee Scheme were given guarantees from CBZ and AFC. The third programme is of the wheat farmers, which is for contractors and those who bake bread and millers. All these people know that eventually they will be paid when they surrender or hand over their wheat to GMB. That is why we are saying that these issues should be addressed so that they have water and they can get their payments after harvesting.”

Masuka said these measures proved that the government was cognisant of the suffering that Zimbabweans are going through.

“The stop order facilities that we are talking about are payable in Zimbabwe dollars for water and electricity and this is the environment that we are creating to ensure that farming can be sustained,” he added.

Zimbabwe has a wheat demand of between 350 000 and 450 000 tonnes annually and 336 000 tonnes are expected this year.

During the 2021 winter season, wheat production stood at 337 000 metric tonnes.

  • Follow us on Twitter@NewsDayZimbabwe