Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
AGRICULTURE minister Anxious Masuka says the country will increase the area planted for wheat from about 80 000 hectares to 85 000 hectares during this year’s winter cropping season.
This comes after the country last year produced a record harvest of 370 000 metric tonnes of the crop, making the country self-sufficient for the first time.
In remarks delivered at a CEO Africa Roundtable indaba last week, Masuka said the government aimed to increase the hectarage again after doing the same last year.
Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka
“In 2022 the area under wheat increased from 66 434 hectares to about 80 383 hectares. This resulted in a record 370 000 metric tonnes of the crop produced.
“Zimbabwe and Ethiopia are the only two African countries that are self-sufficient in wheat. For the upcoming 2023 season for maize, we have had 1 922 602 hectares compared to 1 903 668 hectares from the previous year. We are also planning for the upcoming winter wheat a target of 85 000 hectares,” Masuka said.
“The first-round crop assessment is currently underway and this will give us the actual figures for all the major crops being produced in Zimbabwe.”
Masuka said the performance by wheat producers was part of a deliberate plan to transform agriculture.
“One of the reasons for the recorded results was categorising farmers. We aim to transform 61 percent of the rural population, that is 9,2 million people, from subsistence farmers to surplus-oriented farmers.
“We aim to transform the 360 000 A1 farmers from surplus-oriented farmers to commercial farmers. We aim to transform the 23 000 A2 farmers from commercial farmers to perennial successful businesspeople,” he said.
This also comes as the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) estimates that last year’s winter wheat crop will save the country US$300 million in imports.
“We used to import wheat worth US$300 million per year and that import bill has been very painful to meet.
“However, with the domestication of our wheat production, the multiplier effect is that from that amount that we used to churn out, we are now providing business to local labour, local input suppliers, and others.
“Not only inputs but the mechanisation part of it as well. We are talking about irrigation, harvesting. That has all been domesticated. All that adds to the country’s GDP,” GMAZ national chairman Tafadzwa Musarara told The Financial Gazette recently.
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe chairperson, Tafadzwa Musarara
“It guarantees our supply of the raw material for the whole year. So, we can enter into long-term plans with retailers and bakers.
“Secondly, it stabilises the price because we would have already secured the product and if, in the future, world prices fluctuate for whatever reason, we are cushioned from those movements,” he said.
Grain Marketing Board chief executive Rockie Mutenha’s optimism has also been lifted by the developments in the wheat sector.
“From time immemorial, we have never reached this level of harvest for wheat. We have always been net importers so this is a very big achievement for our country,” he added.
“So, this year if there are any pockets of wheat to be imported it is what we call hard wheat, which is used to blend and mix with our wheat to come up with the required quality of flour for bread making.”
Zimbabwe Economics Society president Nigel Chanakira said the wheat success story should serve as an example of what Zimbabwe can achieve in agriculture.
“That to me is quite remarkable and it shows the capacity that we have as Zimbabwean farmers. We have the land. If we have access to finance for the inputs, then it shows what we can do as a people.
“Wheat needs water and power. Where you have water and power you can irrigate on time. It means you can be able to deliver a product that is in global demand. So, our objective I think, has been fulfilled in terms of self-sufficiency,” Chanakira said.
