Support vital for Command winter wheat

COMMAND Agriculture Programme which started this season with maize production has now shifted to winter wheat, with hundreds of farmers registering to grow the irrigated crop.

Farmers who are voluntarily taking up wheat production will be provided with all the inputs as was the case with maize.

Upon harvesting, farmers will be expected to deliver an agreed tonnage to the Grain Marketing Board as repayment for the free loan, advanced to them in the form of inputs, such as wheat seed, fertilisers, chemicals and tillage services.

Many farmers with irrigation infrastructure have in the past failed to grow wheat because of lack of financial resources to buy the inputs, a gap that Government has bridged through Command Agriculture and specifically command winter wheat production.

It is our hope that Government avails the inputs in time so that farmers do not miss the wheat planting deadlines, as doing so would impact negatively on yield.

The major headache facing farmers is that of electricity supply. Winter wheat is an irrigated crop and there is need for uninterrupted supply of power to farmers. A lot of water is required to germinate the crop and this is a critical period to ensure power supply is not interrupted.

We, therefore, appeal to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) to spare the farmers from load shedding and to religiously attend to faults. In its early stages, wheat requires long hours of irrigation and it would not be in the best interests of the farmers and the nation to cut off electricity. An assurance from Zesa on power supply would obviously motivate more farmers to take up wheat production.

Some farmers with full irrigation are reluctant to grow wheat because of problems associated with electricity supplies encountered in previous seasons. A promise from the power utility would obviously make such farmers change their mind and embrace winter wheat farming. While yield per hectare matters the most in production, we also believe that there is strength in numbers and so the more farmers on the programme, the better.

While the Government continues to make great strides in turning around agriculture, we are failing to locate the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) in all this. We remain convinced that Arda should be anchoring national food security given the vast tracts of land that it boasts across the country.

At one time Arda had 68 estates throughout the country, and while we are not sure about the number today, we believe matters to do with food security are national security issues and so a parastatal of that magnitude should seriously be seized with the matter more than anything else.

There are reports that Arda now has a substantive general manager and we believe part of his/her immediate mandate is to make Arda regain its strategic position in food security matters. Whatever comes from individual farmers should always be a bonus as Arda should take the lead in ensuring national food self-sufficiency.

Our wheat production has plummeted to disappointing levels as farmers struggle to get finance. We hope that the sector can rebound, thanks to Command Agriculture. We require at least 400 000 tonnes of wheat annually.

Command winter wheat is targeted at producing 200 000 tonnes, a very modest target by any measure. We should be able to meet the national requirement, and Arda should be at the forefront.