The Sunday Mail
Grace Kaerasora
Zimbabwe will significantly cut wheat imports and save roughly US$70 million if it attains its 200 000-metric tonne production target this winter cropping season, a senior Government official has said.
On average, the country spends US$100 million yearly on flour imports due to suppressed wheat production.
Such huge food import bills have meant less resources being channelled towards capital projects as authorities try to balance competing priorities.
About US$2 000 is required to produce a hectare of wheat, and 4 000 hectares were planted in 2015, yielding just over 10 000 tonnes.
Now, Government plans to increase wheat output under Command Agriculture.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira told The Sunday Mail last week, “Command Agriculture is going to help because it is an import substitution programme. So, instead of importing grain, we will focus on other materials that we cannot produce; like tractors. That way, we get to save our foreign currency and produce the grain locally.
“For now, we have targeted 200 000 metric tonnes of wheat, and the reason for this is that we consume 400 000 tonnes as a nation.
“The mix is 50 percent local/50 percent import. Our initial target is 200 000 metric tonnes. Before we import, we have to satisfy that amount, and then look at surplus.”
Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe chair Mr Tafadzwa Musarara weighed in: “The Government of Zimbabwe has committed to extending Command Agriculture to winter wheat farming so that the country is self-sufficient. The sum result of these two programmes will see all the available land under irrigation taken up for winter wheat farming.”
GMAZ has rallied contract farmers and private players in the milling industry to produce 200 000 metric tonnes of wheat in the 2017 winter wheat season.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa added, “If we look at the concept of Command Agriculture, one will realise that it has enabled capacity utilisation to improve maize production.
“It has brought funding and if the same concept can be spread across cultural produce, like wheat, then we are better off as a nation. All along from 2009, we were just importing. So, now for us to eat, we have to grow crops locally.”
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union executive director Mr Paul Zakariah said, “Selection of farmers has to be done properly, and the programme should be commercial and not populist. Farmers also have to be educated (on wheat production) without relying too much on the so-called expertise they think they have.”
