LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Power utility, ZESA Holdings, has honoured its promise to ring-fence supplies to farmers, a move which has boosted wheat production this winter, industry players have said.
ZESA dedicated 100MW to farmers.
“This year, we expect the winter wheat output to near self-sufficiency levels as ZESA honoured its promise to dedicate 100MW of electricity to farmers to ensure that they have electricity at all times,” National Wheat Contract Farming Committee vice chairperson, Graeme Murdoch said.
“The availability of electricity together with water obtainability have made the wheat production easier this year.”
Zimbabwe is expecting over 310 000 tonnes of wheat after almost 62 000 hectares were planted this year.
Zimbabwe requires 360 000 tonnes of wheat each year, mainly for flour and bread.
With that output, Zimbabwe is expected to import only 50 000 tonnes of wheat.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, said the bulk of the planting was done under the government guaranteed CBZ Agro-Yield programme.
About 42 000 hectares were funded by CBZ Agro-Yield Scheme while the Presidential Wheat Scheme funded 4 500 hectares.
The private sector funded
15 400 hectares.
However, even if the country was to achieve the national requirement the country will still need to import wheat to make good quality bread as local wheat cannot make good quality bread due to conditions in which the wheat is grown under.
The country can export its own to get foreign currency to use on other critical raw materials.
The local wheat is very good at manufacturing biscuits and other things.
Government set wheat prices at around ZWL$43,000 per tonne of standard wheat and premium grade at around ZWL$53,000 per tonne.
