Farmers Break New Ground, Harvest 457 000t Of Wheat

Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri

Precious Manomano

Herald Reporter

THE Second Republic’s investment in wheat production continues to pay off handsomely, as farmers have so far harvested nearly 457 000 tonnes of the crop, representing a new record in wheat production. Statistics released by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development yesterday show that the average yield per hectare for this season stands at between 5,1 tonnes and 5,3 tonnes. Harvesting remains in progress, with Mashonaland West, Central and East provinces, which are the key producers, having harvested 99 percent of their wheat. With an average yield of 5,3 tonnes per hectare, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland provinces top the list of wheat production, followed by Mashonaland East at 5,1 tonnes and Mashonaland West province at 4,6 tonnes. Initially, Zimbabwe had projected a harvest of 440 844 tonnes, but that has already been overtaken after 456 995 tonnes have been harvested. The massive output was realised from 88 000 hectares of land planted, implying that once harvesting has been completed on about 2 998ha that are outstanding, more wheat would be harvested. Farmers planted wheat on 90 998 hectares of land this season, a record hectarage on its own. Interestingly, a national target of 430 000 tonnes of wheat had been projected, which means farmers got more wheat per hectare than was anticipated. This is the highest wheat output since growing of the crop started in the country in 1966. ReadMore