Zim maize yield up 144%

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Zimbabwe’s maize output surged 144% to 1.39 tonnes per hectare  during the 2020/21 summer cropping season from 0.57 tonnes per hectare registered in the previous year, thanks to good rains, a Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Settlement report shows.

The country endured devastating droughts in the past years.

But the higher than usual rainfall in the 2020/21 season enabled Zimbabwe to record a surplus of over 800 000 metric tonnes after recording 2.71m tonnes.

In a survey carried out by the Business Times, Pfumvudza, a climate proof initiative, attained over five tonnes per hectare against an average of 1.39 tonnes per hectare.

Recently, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Settlement Minister, Anxious Masuka, told Business Times that temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall resulted in improved yield per hectare.

“The country managed to plant over 1.951m tonnes and managed to get 2.7m tonnes while last year the country managed to plant 1.5m hectares of maize and managed to harvest 0.907m tonnes.

“This is attributed to an increase in the amount of rainfall received, which was well distributed throughout the season and increase in the area under climate proofed technologies and initiatives like Pfumvudza/ Intwasa,” Masuka said.

Under the conservative farming method, farmers managed to plant 202 037 hectares and attained an average yield of 5.28 tonnes per hectare resulting in the yield of 1.06m.

With the exclusion of Pfumvudza the national average yield stood at 1.16 tonnes per hectare.

Agriculturalists posited that the early planted crop can do better than the late planted crop due to  a number of factors which include early maturity due to the fact that hot wet temperatures are conducive for  the quick growth of plants,  minimum weeds and less diseases.

In the report, Masuka said the Pfumvudza farmers’ produce had already reached maturity when the rainfall season ended prematurely at the end of February to early March throughout the country.

The late planted maize could not do well as the long dry spell needed some irrigation facilities to ensure that the maize had reached its maturity.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Shadreck Makombe said there was need for the rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation facilities to maximise production.

“Zimbabwe must up the irrigable land to over 300 hectares per district from the current 200 hectares per district in order to improve yield per hectare.  If most farmers have irrigation facilities, planning will be easier as well as ensuring that no crop will be affected with dry spells and drought,” Makombe said.

The government is targeting to increase Zimbabwe’s maize yield to five tonnes per hectare through various initiatives aimed at commercialising cereal production.

The agriculture ministry has moved to empower extension officers by giving them a Commercial Maize Production Field Guide which will help  local farmers not only adopt good farming practices, but increase their productivity to above average potential of local hybrids.

Masuka said the capacitation of extension officers will help the farmers to move from subsistence to commercial farming.