Sundaymail Editor
Sunday Mail Reporter
The Government has deployed 111 high-tech combine harvesters to 20 distribution centres countrywide as harvesting of winter wheat shifts into high gear.
In total, 189 combine harvesters will be deployed.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development chief director agriculture mechanisation, water and soil conservation Engineer Edwin Zimunga said harvesting should be completed before the onset of the summer rains to avoid losses.
“The Government saw it imperative that farmers must access mechanisation services on time to secure the projected bumper harvest,” he said. “It is anticipated that losses on grain such as wheat and maize would reduce by more than 10 percent through timely access of the 111 combine harvesters, which have been distributed under different mechanisation facilities.
“Farmers’ income, which was being lost due to these losses, will be a thing of the past, hence an improved livelihood is inevitable.”
Timely access to the equipment, said Eng Zimunga, has significantly raised production and productivity.
“The combine harvesting capacity improved by more than 100 000 hectares,” he added. “Before the year 2020, grain producers were not able to harvest their produce on time, hence significant post-production or in-field losses were always being encountered. The most affected were wheat farmers as failure to harvest on time would allow their wheat to catch up with summer rains.”
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Dr Shadreck Makombe welcomed the development.
“This is a noble idea and we welcome it,” he said. “This guarantees the nation wheat self-sufficiency.
“Farmers used to incur losses due to the complicated process of acquiring such equipment,” he said.
Online Reporter