Farmers suffer a severe blow

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

 

Heavy rains that have been falling across the country for the past few weeks have severely damaged the winter wheat crop, making it doubtful  that the 440 000 tonnes target will be reached, the Food Crop Contractors chairperson Graeme Murdoch has  said.

He described this as a severe setback for wheat growers.

“As wheat contractors, we are concerned with the extent of the damage that the early heavy rains did to our wheat in terms of the output and quality.

“In areas where there were some heavy rains, the losses are huge but we wait for the insurance companies to quantify the losses so that we can give an appropriate figure,”Murdoch said.

According to official figures obtained from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture , Fisheries and Rural Development, on Friday last week, farmers   had harvested 411 838 tonnes of wheat from 77 192 hectares, surpassing the record harvest of 375 000 tonnes accomplished  last year.

Right now, 360 000 tonnes are needed locally.

Shadreck Makombe, president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union, expressed satisfaction that the farmers had surpassed last year’s record of 375 000 tonnes of wheat, despite the setback caused by the rains.

“We have surpassed last year’s wheat output and we are poised for an even higher record given that we are almost at 415 000 tonnes with a number of hectares to go. We commend the government and ZESA for the job well done,” he said.

The country possesses over 198 000 tonnes of wheat, which could last for nine months, according to the Cabinet, which explains the sufficient output of the grain.

It was anticipated that this week would see the completion of this year’s winter wheat harvest.

To speed up harvesting, the government deployed  249 state of the art combine harvesters that were purchased under Belarus’s Phase 1 and Phase 2 farm mechanization program.

Zimbabwe is considering exporting excess wheat both within and outside of the region.

 

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