Zimbabwe braces for huge wheat deficit
Charles Taffs
ZIMBABWE expects to produce a paltry 102 000 tonnes of wheat this year against an annual demand of 450 000 tonnes.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
Farmers’ unions yesterday said the 300 000-tonne deficit was likely to be covered by imports.
The unions told Southern Eye that wheat production was being affected by a plethora of challenges such as lack of funding, power constraints, impact of cheap imports and high input costs.
“We are targeting to produce 90 000 metric tonnes of wheat this year, but cost of production remains a big challenge.
“Electricity is very expensive as we are being charged $0,14 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is challenging,” Zimbabwe Commercial Famers’ Union president Wonder Chabikwa said.
He said one hectare of wheat costs about $2 500.
Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) president Charles Taffs said numerous viability challenges besetting farmers would force many to abandon the crop.
He said Zimbabwe needed to re-establish the grain value chain to boost wheat production.
“This year wheat production would be very low compared to 2014. CFU is targeting to produce 12 000 tonnes of wheat against the country’s annually consumption of 450 000 tonnes,” Taffs said.
“This is very sad and it means the country will import a lot of wheat this time around.”
He said wheat production had significantly declined in recent years since 2000 following the chaotic land reform programme, adding it was no longer profitable to grow the crop.
The government has said it is targeting 40 000 hectares under winter wheat this season.
Farmers’ unions said the government should intervene and offer subsidies to encourage farmers to boost wheat production.