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MATABELELAND and Midlands provinces are geared up for increased wheat production in the winter cropping season as the country eyes another record bumper harvest to sustain national wheat sufficiency.

Leading farmers in some parts of the country have started planting and at Mary Ellen Farm in Bubi District, Matabeleland North, the crop has started germinating.

Zimbabwe produced 375 000 tonnes of wheat in 2022, against a national demand of 360 000 tonnes and Government is targeting to increase the production levels to 408 000 tonnes this year.

Last year’s production made Zimbabwe and Ethiopia the only two wheat secure nations on the continent. Farmers are already responding to Government’s initiatives as they have ramped up preparations for the farming season.

Matabeleland North will today hold a wheat farming sensitisation workshop at Mary Ellen Farm, which is one of the model wheat producers in the province.

A Chronicle news crew yesterday visited the farm where it observed different stages of crop production being done.

The news crew observed that some of the plants had germinated with farm managers saying all hands were on deck and they are chasing a May 15 deadline to have completed the planting process.

Mary Ellen Farm assistant manager (crop) Mr Kudakwashe Mutova said timing is everything in winter wheat farming.

“The greatest message is that winter wheat is all about timing. You just have to be on time and make sure that you are within range of planting the winter wheat because there are many factors involved. If you delay your planting, the crop is going to be affected by rain and if it is affected by rain, it will germinate on the field affecting the grade of your crop,” said Mr Mutova.

“Secondly, you will affect your cropping calendar. If you delay it means you are going to delay putting your summer crop and delaying your summer crop will affect your next winter crop.”

He said the farm has increased its winter crop production by almost 100 hectares.

“We are going to cover 296 hectares gross, which is 257ha net and compared to last year. We are increasing hectarage by nearly 100ha gross. By gross we mean where the whole pivot irrigates and the net is actually where we would have planted our wheat,” he said.

“For example, when applying chemicals and fertilisers, we use the gross because it is an area that is covered by the pivot. For the net we consider pits, rocks and other things where we cannot plant anything; we call these islands. So, we exclude these areas hence we differentiate the net and gross productions.”

Matabeleland North acting provincial agricultural rural services development director Mr Dumisani Nyoni said the province aims to cover 1 500ha but farmers have pledged to cover nearly 1700ha of land.

“We have Bulawayo Kraal in Binga which has pledged to plant 200ha. They promised that they will be ready to produce. Two weeks ago, they had started disking 50ha towards planting. The contractor is on site attending to the piping. Arda Jotsholo is targeting to plant 350ha, however, it was saying that it has issues with water supplies and had requested access to water from an upstream dam. But if it does not get the water, they will be limited to planting 300ha,” said Mr Nyoni.

He said just like Mary Ellen Farm, Arda Jotsholo had started planting while Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme was finalising harvesting its maize and sunflower crop before embarking on wheat farming.

“We are not experiencing any challenges so far. We are actually happy that Government promised to ringfence electricity as supply of electricity is critical to the irrigation of the crop so that it germinates well. The germination period is critical for the quality of the crop that we would be having,” he said.

Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) chief executive officer Mr Tinotenda Mhiko said Government availed funds towards the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo Kraal irrigation system and a contractor was on the ground finalising on works.

“As Arda, we are doing 20 000ha and our target is to harvest 100 000 metric tonnes and contribute 28 percent to the annual national requirement for the country,” said Mr Mhiko.

In Matabeleland South Province, planting of wheat has started at some irrigations while other farmers are preparing the land for planting.

Matabeleland South acting provincial agricultural rural development services director, Mr Mkhunjulelwa Ndlovu said the province has a target of 3 000 hectares which is an increase from last year’s 2 286 hectares. He said they were in the process of linking farmers with banks so that they could get financing and equipment for production.

Mr Ndlovu said training of farmers in wheat production is also ongoing.

“Our target this year for winter crop production is 3 000 hectares from 2 286 last year. Planting has been done in some areas with the seed already germinating. At most irrigation schemes, land preparation is underway. The uptake of farmers under wheat production over the past two years has been impressive. The rehabilitation of more schemes will also help to boost our production. For example, we will be having Makwe Irrigation Scheme producing wheat for the first time in five years,” he said.

“The province has done very well under wheat production over the past two years. This significant improvement can be attributed to the Presidential Input Scheme which equipped farmers with inputs. Government working with partners, also came in to rehabilitate some irrigation schemes which were struggling to produce.”

Arda Antelope Estate manager, Mr Aleck Chinyai said they were targeting to plant 600 hectares of wheat. He said they had planted seed on 290 hectares and 140 hectares had already germinated. Mr Chinyai said land preparation and planting was also underway on the remaining portion of land.

Acting Provincial Director, Agriculture and Rural Development Mrs Madeline Magwenzi said she was confident that the province would surpass the target given more irrigation schemes were rehabilitated.

“We are upbeat as a province that we will surpass the target and have seen more irrigation schemes being rehabilitated. Farmers are so eager for the upcoming season and preparations are in full swing,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Dr John Basera addressed some challenges affecting them when he visited the province recently.

“The permanent secretary promised us one combine harvester which is a huge relief because we were having problems with some farmers failing to harvest in time ahead of the winter season. The gesture has come as a huge relief and with that we expect more efficiency,” she said.

The province has two combine harvesters against a demand of five and the recent gesture will bring relief to farmers. Mrs Magwenzi said the province had already started receiving inputs such as fertilisers and seed.

“We have received inputs like fertilisers although we are yet to receive enough seed, but we have enough to set the planting in motion,” she said.

Dr Basera said the transition period from summer cropping to winter farming was important and Government had provided mechanised equipment to farmers to address some of the challenges affecting them.

“We need to highly mechanise so that we have that smooth transition. This is why we allocated combine harvesters to the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) so that they can be used by farmers across the country. We have also allocated about 700 tractors which can be used for the tillage, harvesting, spraying and other services to framers. Harvesting is very critical, that is why we need to increase our combine harvesters from about 300 that we have so far,” he said.

Dr Basera said his ministry, working together with other ministries, had managed to ringfence power supply to ensure that wheat farmers get uninterrupted power supply.

“We managed to secure 120 megwatts dedicated to wheat farmers so that they get constant power supply since 100 percent wheat production is under irrigation,” he said.

On migratory pests, Dr Basera said the Government stands ready to counter them.

“As a country we have been facing challenges from migratory pests, especially quelea birds. We have managed to import chemicals and we are moving to import more so that we can spray them. We have a rapid response team and the migratory pest control unit standing ready to attend to any distress call,” he said.

Dr Basera said farmers were losing about 50 percent of their yield to quelea birds.

He said equipment such as drones and spraying planes were in place to address the problem. — @nqotshili/— @DubeMatutu/