To produce over 1,8 million tonnes of maize, there is need to increase yield per hectare to an average of 1,5 tonnes per hectare.

AGRICULTURAL production output for 2015 shows a decline in agricultural performance for all crops, with yield per hectare in maize declining to 0,48 tonnes per hectare.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa attributed the decline in agricultural performance for the 2014/15 season to the combined effects of the late onset of rains and its poor distribution, including the high cost of borrowed financing under the current environment of liquidity constraints.
“The impact of the drought, among other factors, reduced yields for both cereals and cash crops, such as tobacco, cotton and soya beans and the poor rainfall pattern not only resulted in some of the area under cropping having to be written-off, but also adversely affected the quality of some crops,” Chinamasa said in the 2015 mid-year fiscal policy statement.
The impact was most severe on cereals, such as maize and small grains, with maize output for the 2014/2015 season going down by 50 percent from 1,4 million tonnes the previous season to 742 200 tonnes this year.
To achieve the national requirements of 1,8 million tonnes, the country would need to import at least 900 000 tonnes. The impact of drought on maize productivity saw yield per hectare declining from 0,85 tonnes per hectare to 0,48 tonnes per hectare.
To produce over 1,8 million tonnes of maize, there is need to increase yield per hectare to an average of 1,5 tonnes per hectare.
Statistics by province show that yield per hectare in Mashonaland West declined to 0,93t/ha from 1,28t/ha, in Mashonaland Central maize yield also went down from 1,27 to 1,05 t/ha, Mashonaland East from 0,80 t/ha in the 2013/2014 season to 0,55 t/ha in the 2014/2015 season. In Manicaland average yield per hectare for this season was 0,43 tonnes per hectare from 0,80 t/ha last year, in Midlands 0,27 t/ha was recorded, in Masvingo, an average of 0,14 t/ha was achieved, Matabeleland north 0,18 t/ha and in Matabeleland South an average yield of 0,48 t/ha was achieved.
The traditional crops such as sorghum saw production declining from 140 000 tonnes to 39 700 tonnes in 2015. According to the first and second round crop and livestock assessment report, 31 094 hectares of the sorghum crop was written off because of drought, while 14 012 ha of pearl millet and 264 ha of finger millet were written off.
As part of the food grains in the country, wheat production, according to Chinamasa is expected to increase from 29 000 tonnes last year to 58 700 tonnes this year, as the government projected that 22 000 hectares of wheat had been planted.
However, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union weekly market guide states that wheat hectarage declined from 8 000 hectares in 2014 to 6 000 this year.
“Wheat production is estimated to have declined from 33 700 tonnes in 2012 to about 24 700 tonnes in 2013. Challenges that have continued to affect the production of the crop include erratic power supply for irrigation, funding and high cost of inputs. It costs approximately US$1 200 to grow a hectare of wheat against US$230 in Ukraine and US$600 in Australia,” ZFU said.
Zimbabwe requires about 400 000 tonnes of wheat annually and shortages mean the country would have to meet the shortfall with imports from other countries like South Africa and Zambia. With the projected decline in production of wheat this year, importation of wheat is expected to be higher than last year in order to meet national demand.
Once again the country has not been able to take full advantage of the huge irrigation potential available to farmers. Most of the country’s dams remain full and irrigation systems lie idle due to the poor maintenance and up keep of equipment.
Although the area under soyabeans has improved significantly due to increased contract farming, total output has declined from 85 000 tonnes last year to 57 900 tonnes this year.
Soyabeans production has declined from 170 000 tonnes in 2001 against a national requirement of 200 000 tonnes for livestock feed and cooking oil.
As agriculture is expected to decline by 8,5 percent, cotton production for 2015 is expected to go down to 90 000 tonnes from 156 000 tonnes last year. Statistics show that the number of cotton producers has declined from 200 000 to 140 000 this year and 170 000 last year.
The low price of seed cotton compared to other cash crops such as tobacco and paprika also discouraged a substantial number of farmers particularly in the higher rainfall areas from cotton production in the 2014/15 season.
The agricultural programme for the 2015/16 summer crop targets a total of 2,1 million hectares for grain crops, of which 1,7 million hectares is for maize and about 485 000 hectares for small grains.
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