Promise of Zimbabwe wheat

African nation is on brink of its largest harvest ever due to new focus on self-reliance

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe says it is on the brink of its biggest wheat harvest in history, thanks in large part to efforts to overcome food supply problems caused by the war in Ukraine. But bush fires and impending rains are threatening crops yet to be harvested.

Like other African countries, Zimbabwe has for decades relied on imports to offset low local production.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in global shortages and price hikes, the country wanted to ensure “self-sufficiency at all costs,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Vangelis Haritatos said this week.

The country expects to harvest 380,000 tons of wheat, “which is 20,000 more than we require as a country,” Haritatos said. That is up from about 300,000 tons produced last year.

“We are most likely to get the highest tonnage since 1962, when wheat was first introduced to Zimbabwe. A lot of countries are facing shortages, but the opposite is happening in Zimbabwe,” Haritatos said.

While other African countries are struggling with reduced wheat imports due to the war in Ukraine, Zimbabwe is looking at using its anticipated surplus to build “a small strategic reserve” for the first time in its history, Agriculture Minister Anxious

Masuka said this month. This would cushion Zimbabwe against future shocks.

Masuka said Zimbabwe plans to bump up wheat production to about 420,000 tons next season, giving the country room to keep building its strategic reserve and become an exporter of the grain. Wheat is Zimbabwe’s most important strategic crop after corn.

African countries — which imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to U.N. figures — were hit hard by the global shortages and price increases of grains as a result of the war. The African Development Bank has reported a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent.

African nations were at the center of Western efforts to reopen Ukraine’s ports as the United States and allies accused Russia of starving the world by denying exports from Ukraine, a key global grain exporter. African leaders also visited Russia to meet with Putin over the issue.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in April described the war in Ukraine as a “wake-up call” for countries to grow their own food.

The answer in Zimbabwe has been to empower local farmers, said Haritatos, the deputy agriculture minister.

That included roping in hundreds of small-scale, rural farmers to start growing a crop that was traditionally reserved for large-scale commercial farmers, improving water supply infrastructure and distributing fertilizers to small-scale farmers as well as increasing private-sector participation. The crop was introduced for the first time to areas and farmers who had never grown wheat before.

The wheat harvest runs from October to December.

However, both farmers and the government are concerned by the threat of raging bush fires, more devastating than in previous years, and imminent rains. The government says it has deployed more combine harvesters to help farmers speed up the harvest and is carrying out fire prevention awareness programs.

TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI/AP A man covers his face from the dust of a wheat harvesting operation Oct. 10 in Bindura, Zimbabwe.