1 800ha under Command wheat

OVER 1 800 hectares of land have been put under the Government-funded Command Winter Wheat Programme, as contracting of farmers is still ongoing in the Midlands province.

In an interview, Midlands provincial crop and livestock officer Mrs Madeline Magwenzi said the distribution of Command Wheat inputs was on-going as farmers were at various levels of planting and tilling the land.

“We have so far put 1 838 hectares of land under the Command Winter Wheat programme and contracting of farmers is still on-going,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said 1 039 hectares have been planted by 48 farmers mainly in wetter regions around Gweru, Shurugwi and Kwekwe under irrigation.

She said the supply and distribution of inputs had been timely, adding that they had so far received 141 000 litres of fuel against an allocation of 300 000 litres.

“The province is set to receive 120 tonnes of wheat seed, 731 tonnes of compound D, 20 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 485 tonnes of lime,” said Mrs Magwenzi.

“On herbicides we have so far received glyphosate and dicamba. We have also received 141 000 litres of fuel and we are expecting more.”

Mrs Magwenzi said she was optimistic that the farmers’ yields will be much better considering the timely distribution of inputs by the Government combined with favourable climate for wheat.

She said Government was not contracting farmers who have not cleared their debts from last season.

“We are only working with serious farmers who managed to clear their debts from last year,” she said.

“We could not contract farmers who did not clear debts from last year. Our farmers should take farming as a business and plan responsibly.