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Due to funding challenges, wheat farming is being compromised, says Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president

Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) says the hectarage put under winter wheat this year could have declined by about 50 percent to about 4,000 hectares. ZCFU president Wonder Chabikwa said due to funding challenges, wheat farming was being compromised.

“So far, I am yet to get the actual hectarage that our members put under winter wheat farming,” he said.
“But from my assessment, the farmers have put about 4,000 hectares under winter wheat this season. The establishment of wheat tilted off in the first week of June and the crop is at different stages of growth ranging from flowering to soft dough.”

Due to funding challenges, the hectarage put under winter wheat has over the years been dwindling forcing the country, that has a national demand of 400,000 tonnes annually, to rely on imported wheat from South Africa and Zambia.

Reduced wheat production results in shortages of some basic commodities and related agricultural products.
“It is not that local farmers are cry babies. But because wheat requires special funding and it is expensive to grow, the farmers need to be funded. World over wheat farming is taken care of in the form of government subsidies and that used to happen in the country,” said Chabikwa, adding that farmers could not borrow money from local institutions as lending rates were expensive.

“The interest rates are as high as 18 percent.”
Wheat production is estimated to have declined from 33,700 tonnes in 2012 to about 24,700 tonnes in 2013. This was on account of continued declines in the area planted. At its peak, about 60,000 hectares of land was put under wheat.