Zim to harvest 123 000 tonnes of wheat – The Financial Gazette
Zimbabwe has the potential to plant 80 000 hectares of wheat with a yield per hectare output of 6 to 8 tonnes.
ZIMBABWE is expecting to harvest 123 000 tonnes of wheat from the 2018 production down from 158 000 tonnes produced last year, deputy Land minister Vangelis Haritatos said.
Zimbabwe requires 450 000 tonnes of wheat per annum for consumption and industrial uses. The country is already facing a serious bread shortage will be importing the deficit of 327 000 tonnes.
“The wheat supplies are supplemented through imports to meet local demand and that dependency on imports, exposes the country to the vagaries of global market and supply shocks which are characterised by wide fluctuations, exacerbated by fluctuating and unstable foreign exchange rates,” he said.
Globally, the demand for wheat supply is high as some of the wheat producing nations were hit by a severe drought. The landing price of wheat therefore increased from $350 per tonne in 2017 to $420 per tonne this year.
“As government we have set short term goals and our short term goal is 600 000 tonnes of wheat in the next two years and we will produce excess of 150 000 tonnes for the country’s strategic wheat reserve.
“Our long term goal is to focus on 1,2 million tonnes of wheat because as we go forward our population grows, the demand increases and we want to start exporting. It is also not about meeting the targets but about quality,” he said.
Under the 2018 Command Wheat programme, government had targeted 50 000 hectares but farmers managed to plant 34 703 hectares with the command programme planting two thirds of the total hectarage (23 598 hectares), while the private sector planted 11 105 hectares.
Last year 43 816 hectares was planted but because of the problems in the maize sectors such as lack of combine harvesters and drying facilities the wheat programme was affected.
Zimbabwe has the potential to plant 80 000 hectares of wheat with a yield per hectare output of 6 to 8 tonnes.
The Ministry is working towards the increased participation of farmers in domestic and export markets through the development of efficient agricultural marketing system and an enabling environment for competitive agricultural production.