Wild dream to end wheat imports by 2023
GOVERNMENT has outlined an ambitious plan to end wheat imports within two years after rolling out a strategy to harvest 315 000 tonnes of the crop this year.
Wheat farmers planted 46 000 hectares last year and harvested 165 000 tonnes of the crop, but this will be increased to 70 000 hectares in 2021, according to Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement deputy minister Vangelis Peter Haritatos.
The 165 000 tonnes were only a fraction of about 450 000 tonnes that Zimbabwe requires per year.
There has been significant demand in the past five years as consumers change lifestyles, switching food from the staple sadza to more refined cereals.
The country required 400 000 tonnes of wheat in 2015.
The plan revealed last week starts this season with government increasing land under wheat while beefing up irrigation infrastructure to capitalise on improved water availability following a good rainfall season.
Haritatos said yields would improve starting this year as the provision of inputs increases.
The plan got a boost on Tuesday last week after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said it would release a further $2,5 billion through the Medium Term Bank Accommodation to fund the winter wheat crop.
“This year we are targeting at least 4,5 tonnes per hectare and with 70 000 hectares that will give us comfortably close to self-sufficiency,” Haritatos told Standard-business.
“So this is how we start. Within the next two years or a year, we should not be importing any wheat. We are targeting about 70 000 hectares of wheat this coming season.”
It was not clear if the new plan will work as government has previously announced similar plans, which flopped due to lack of inputs and general economic mismanagement.
“Preparations are already in place and most depots now have inputs for winter wheat. We are on top of the game. We have enough Compound D fertiliser stocks and we have enough seed. We have really stepped up our game. We have had meetings with the irrigation sector. We are on a countrywide tour of 32 smallholder irrigation schemes that could provide yet another 6 000 to 8 000 hectares of land that we want to put under winter wheat,” he said.
Over the years, wheat production has decreased, with figures showing that in 2017 farmers produced 186 200 tonnes which dropped to 160 600 in 2018 before falling to about 100 000 tonnes in 2019.
The deputy minister said while millers had argued that locally grown wheat must be blended with imports to produce better bread quality, the bread currently on the market was unblended.
“Our millers are not bringing much imported wheat to blend with the local one. I haven’t heard anyone going to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe saying the quality of our bread is poor. We have maintained the quality of our bread. It is getting better and better,” he said.