‘Zim can’t continue importing’

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Zimbabwe has to find innovative ways to guarantee food security, Seed Co regional managing director Denias Zaranyika has said.

The development comes at a time when the country is spending US$500m in maize imports yearly to feed the starving population.

Zaranyika told Business Times at the Seed Co Innovation Challenge that there is need to improve seed varieties to boost the country’s total output per hectare.

“We cannot afford to continue importing raw materials when we have a lot of land at our disposal, new ways, and new products have to be found to feed the population,” Zaranyika said.

Zaranyika said Seed Co has over the years seen yields growing to 20 hectares from two tonnes per hectare on some of its varieties that come through innovations by its breeders.

The company has moved to come up with a number of new varieties which can tolerate harsh weather conditions to mitigate climate change effects that have stalked the country for the past decade.

Seed Co has new varieties that registered end of 2019 which includes SC555, SC547 which are medium.

On 600 series the company has SC659 and SC649 which mature fast and on the 700 series, there is SC729 which is the best in tolerating dry spells.

The company is coming up with new varieties on each category to improve tolerance to dry weather conditions and improve yields.

The company is also planning a 200 series variety which is a super early breed which will hit the market in the near future and the variety doesn’t have an iconology or animal name as yet.

These varieties will have nitrogen use efficiency which makes a plant to photosynthesize faster therefore the crop grows faster.

Zaranyika said despite hunger stalking the country, innovators have a myriad of opportunities to come up with solutions to improve total crop output per hectare.

Seed Co has come up with 10 innovators with different innovations to help the company to improve the company’s systems.

Zaranyika said organisations that do not adapt to new technology will die.

Seed Co (Zimbabwe) head agronomist Wendy Madzura said the seed company will continue to develop drought-tolerant varieties to shield the country from severe weather conditions and ensure good yields.

She said Seed Co is coming up with more varieties which will withstand moisture stress for long particularly the drought escape characteristic or drought tolerance aspect.

Madzura said climate change is bringing up shorter seasons therefore one wants his or her crop to be in and out as quickly as possible.

From last year Seed Co was moving towards increasing 73% of its total seed production to be early maturity varieties in a bid to attain good yields in times of drought.

Seed Co is well aware that most Zimbabwean farmers are communal hence the seed company is producing very early and drought tolerant varieties that suit those without irrigation facilities.

While the late maturity varieties will be taken by large scale farmers with large scale farmers who are largely driven by profits than self sufficiency.

Seed Co has invested over US$28m towards research over the past six years in a bid to keep pace with the latest farming, climatic and environmental demands.

In 2017, a US$4m laboratory was designed to keep pace with the latest farming, climatic and environmental demands.

Climate change is forcing many seed producers to be innovative, particularly in producing new seed varieties that are drought tolerant, pest resistance and produce improved yields.