Midlands Bureau Chief
THE Midlands province has set a target of planting 11 000ha under winter wheat and barley this year, which will be divided into two schemes.

This year’s winter cropping will be rolled out under the Agro-yield Government programme (formerly command agriculture) on irrigation schemes and the Presidential winter wheat scheme.

Midlands Agritex provincial crop and livestock officer, Mrs Medlinah Magwenzi said they were taking advantage of the abundant water resource in dams across the province to open up more land for winter wheat and barley.

“As a provincem, we are targeting 11 000ha this season, up from 4 500ha last year. We want to take advantage of the abundant water available this year due to the good rains received during the summer cropping season,” she said in an interview.

Mrs Magwenzi said this year barley has been included under the programme.

She said the target might appear ambitious but was feasible as the Government was providing adequate support to farmers and there is adequate water.

She said many farmers were interested in winter wheat production this season.

“We are hopeful that farmers will be able to harvest their maize on time to enable them to plant early,” said Mrs Magwenzi.

She said farmers in Kwekwe district have already planted 208ha while other districts are still to submit their statistics.

Mrs Magwenzi said farmers in the province were busy harvesting maize, soya beans, groundnuts, sorghum, pearl millet, rice, sugar beans and all other crops.

“Farmers are excited by the producer prices and some have started delivering grain to GMB,” she said.