Wheat Condition Impressive Countrywide

Wheat

Precious Manomano

Herald Reporter

The wheat condition is generally good, with a bumper harvest expected so that the country will have a surplus of wheat for the second successive year. The bulk of the early planted wheat is now at grain filling stage whilst the late planted crop is at vegetative stage, but all the wheat is in good condition. A total of 86 000 hectares have been planted under winter wheat this year and this is expected to produce 420 000 tonnes of the cereal, well above the 375 000 tonnes of last year, the highest ever recorded since wheat growing started in 1966 and the first time ever that national needs were met without imports. Farmers this season are expected to produce enough wheat to not only meet the annual target of 360 000 tonnes required for domestic demand but also to have adequate carry-over stocks and start wheat exports. The Government has been targeting increases in wheat production to meet the national requirement in line with the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, the Agriculture Recovery Plan, and the National Development Strategy 1 and in pursuit of the vision of becoming an empowered and prosperous upper middle-income society by 2030. ReadMore