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Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) has planted over 14 000 hectares of summer crops to date as it targets to reach 50 000 ha for the 2022/23 cropping season.
In an interview, Arda chairman Mr Ivan Craig said for the summer crops their major focus was on maize, sorghum, sunflower and cotton.
“We have planted 14 728ha of summer crops to date. We are arranging for alternative funding and our remaining plantings will largely be traditional grains and sunflower as the window for maize planting is slowly closing.
“We are targeting to establish 50 000ha of summer crops with a major focus on maize, sorghum, sunflower and cotton,” he said.
Arda, a parastatal under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, is running a pilot of 42 irrigation schemes with some of the key ones in the Matabeleland, Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East provinces.
Mr Craig said they had a remarkable winter wheat performance as they harvested about 58 073 tonnes from their rural irrigation estates.
In Matabeleland North, Arda Jotsholo Irrigation was one of the schemes that surpassed its target for the winter wheat harvest with over 280 ha put under an eight centre pivots irrigation system.
Arda has a substantial land holding across the country, including 21 estates of different sizes, with 98 000 ha of arable land, 19 000 which is irrigable. In the last decade most of these fell into disrepair, with production plummeting.
The Arda Rural Transformation Strategy is gathering momentum as most schemes are back to life after years of desolation.
This year, Zimbabwe recorded the highest wheat harvest in 56 years. According to Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services, the country achieved a milestone in wheat production by harvesting 375 000 tonnes of the cereal this year.
The good harvest has been attributed to Government’s agricultural transformation anchored on active private and public sector participation.
Over the years, the country could not meet national requirements and had to import wheat from other countries.
Recently, the weekly update indicated that all provinces have completed harvesting.
It also showed that the cumulative area harvested across the provinces stood at 78 063ha, which is 97 percent of the planted area with a cumulative production of 375 131 tonnes.
During the 2022 winter cropping season, 78 063ha were put under wheat, registering the highest hectarage since independence and followed by plantings in 2004 (70 585ha) and 2005 (67 261ha).
The country had targeted to produce 380 000 tonnes of wheat but part of the crop was affected by early rains and veld fires.
Online Reporter