Chronicle EditorNqobile Bhebhe – [email protected]
GOVERNMENT has said Zimbabwe has grain reserves enough to last for 12 months, with the country having produced an estimated 2,3 million metric tonnes of maize, a 58 percent increase from the 2021/2022 season.
In its 2022/23 summer season crop, livestock, and fisheries assessment report (CLAFA -2) released yesterday, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development said climate-proofing interventions should be intensified across all farmer categories with emphasis on smallholder farmers through the promotion of diversification and use of drought-tolerant crops such as indigenous and traditional grains, especially in marginal areas of Zimbabwe.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development annually conducts four National, Crop, Livestock and Fisheries Assessments.
These include the first, second, and post-harvest assessments for crops, livestock, and fisheries and the winter wheat assessment.
Agricultural extension officers are the principal enumerators who collect data from randomly sampled farmers in every ward of the 1 600 rural wards.
According to the report, from March 20 to 31, field staff carried out the second round of the crop, livestock, and fisheries assessment with intensive data collection from all rural wards in Zimbabwe.
The verification exercise by provincial and district teams was done between 25 March and 6 April.
The main objective of the assessment is to estimate crop production under major crops and determine the factors that influenced yields and assess overall food security prospects for the nation.
The information from the report is used for early warning systems, policy programming, improvement of the national herd, planning for food security and measuring the performance of the overall sector and its contribution to the overall economy.
Based on its recommendations, the ministry said there won’t be any need for the country to import cereals in the next 12 months.
“In light of the positive 2023 cereal balance sheet, grain importation is not recommended in the next 12 months. The area under maize increased marginally by one percent, but the 58 percent volume growth was largely due to yield increase from 0,7t/ha to 1,17t/ha (54 percent increase) with higher potential provinces yielding higher,” read the report.
The report said the estimated maize production stands at 2 298 281 metric tonnes which is a 58 percent increase from the 2021/2022 season.
Government attributed the increase to a well-distributed rainfall pattern received in the country in both space and time.
The report noted the districts with the least cereal grain produced are Mwenezi, Beitbridge, Gweru and Chivi.
“Some 18 districts in the southern parts of the country will require food assistance. They are, however, wide variations in each district with those households that have produced traditional grains being more food secure,” said the report.
In Matabeleland North, Binga, Bubi, Nkayi, and Umguza districts have cereal cover of more than 12 months while in Matabeleland South, Beitbridge district has 0-3 months.
The crop assessment report also recommended the need to intensify the use of Farmer Field Schools and digital platforms such as the soils and agro-ecological digital platforms to improve agricultural information dissemination in order to increase productivity.
The report said farming should be guided by weather and climate information while the choice of crops and livestock grown by farmers must be informed by the agro-ecological region potential.
“The Presidential inputs support schemes should include chemical weed control options to curb challenges caused by inconsistencies in the season that hamper proper weed control.”
The report said the sustained transformation of the agricultural sector should be anchored on grower viability.
“Therefore, timely and viable producer prices and reduced input costs while increasing productivity should be encouraged,” read the report.
Sidumisile Mabena