Zimbabwe’s Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Anxious Masuka, on Wednesday, revealed the country is set to double its wheat’s output.
In a statement in Harare, the minister revealed that the country is expecting to harvest no fewer than 220,000 metric tons of winter wheat in 2020 due to increased government support to farmers.
The figure is more than double last year’s output.
He said harvesting and marketing of the wheat was officially opened on Sept. 10 by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the sole buyer of the cereal.
“In terms of production, some 44,399 hectares were planted. This is an 83.6 per cent increase in the area planted from the 24,186 ha planted in the 2019-2020 season.
“We expect 200,000 to 220,000 metric tons which will go a long way towards meeting the annual national wheat requirement of 400,000 to 450,000 tons,” the minister said.
The country produced 60,000 tons of wheat in 2020, compared to 160,000 tons produced in 2018.
Masuka warned unscrupulous buyers that those found on the wrong side of the law will be severely punished.
He said government would adequately capacitate the GMB so that it pays farmers timeously.
The minister said going forward, there was need to augment the winter wheat programme with a vibrant summer programme, through enhanced participation of the private sector.
He said according to government’s agriculture recovery plan, at least 40 per cent of agro-players such as grain processors, millers and stock feed manufacturers must secure their agricultural raw materials locally through value-chain financing.
“The benefits of this approach are indeed multifarious, including foreign currency savings through import substitution, employment generation, local farmer capacitation and risk reduction,” he said.
The government last week increased the producer price of wheat from 11,768.44 Zimbabwe dollars per ton to 43,778.84 dollars for ordinary Grade wheat and from 14,143.73 dollars to 52,524.61 per ton for Grade A wheat.