Online Reporter
Engineer Tapuwa Justice Mashangwa
2025 has been a year of great feats for our beloved Republic of Zimbabwe. From being recognised as the best tourist destination to the remarkable performance of several companies on the stock exchange, surely the future is green.
Agriculturally, our performance this year suggests that Zimbabwe is making significant strides toward agricultural recovery and resilience, helped by mechanisation, policy support and climate-smart investments.
Through increased diversification into export crops and horticulture for the Zimbabwean farmer, they will reduce over-reliance on maize/wheat and open new income streams.
Zimbabwe recorded a wheat harvest of 640 195 tonnes from the 2025 winter season — the highest since commercial wheat farming began which surpasses the country’s estimated annual wheat consumption (360 000 tonnes), effectively making Zimbabwe self-sufficient in wheat for the third consecutive year.
Most of this is attributed to irrigation expansion, mechanisation, climate-smart farming techniques and improved farmer training.
For the 2024/2025 season, Zimbabwe achieved 99 percent of its maize-planting target, covering about 1.79 million hectares — up from 1.21 million ha the previous season.
The tobacco crop remains an important export earner: production and exports reportedly remain strong this year. The sugar and horticulture sectors are also showing momentum: for instance, sugar-cane harvesting and processing continues, and niche horticultural crops like blueberries are expanding—helping diversify agricultural output beyond cereals.
The government mobilised 16 000 tractors ahead of the 2025/26 summer cropping season to accelerate land preparation and support early planting. This will boost mechanisation efforts as the increased emphasis on climate-resilient farming systems (e.g. irrigation, conservation farming/pfumvudza-style crop planning), soil health and aligning crops with agro-ecological zones to mitigate weather risks continues.
For farmers with a keen interest in other areas of crop production for December the planting of warm weather annual flowers, raspberry, sorghum, millet, soybeans, cow peas, sunflower, castor beans, baby marrow, butternut, chilli, cucumber, okra and pepper can be done.
Warm weather annual flowers seeds can be sown directly into well-drained soil or start in trays. The soil must be kept moist until germination. Popular warm-season flowers include marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers and salvia.
Raspberries are best to plant late winter to early spring (July – September), but one can still plant until November/December with irrigation. To plant raspberries, 40 cm deep holes must be dug and compost and manure should be added. Plant canes should be 60–100 cm apart and soil must be kept cool and mulched. Extreme heat should be avoided during establishment.
Planting maize is still doable even better now with the good rains that we have been blessed with. Recommended spacing is 90 cm inter row and 25–30 cm between plants (this may vary also depending on expert agronomic advice). For those that will be planting were good rainfall may be problematic a good irrigation system has to be setup.
Sorghum generally requires spacing of 75 cm inter-row and 15–20 cm in-row. Millet (Pearl/Finger) needs 50–75 cm inter-row spacing and 10–15 cm in-row. Soybeans best planting time is between November to December (latest mid-January under irrigation), with an inter-row spacing of 45–75 cm and 5–10 cm in-row spacing.
Cowpeas also do well during this time with the planting period running right up to February. Recommended inter-row spacing is 60 cm whilst in-row spacing is 10–15 cm. Sunflowers can be planted until January with an inter-row spacing of 75 cm and an in-row spacing of 20–30 cm. December is the last planting month for castor beans. An inter-row spacing of 1 m is recommended with in in-row spacing of 1m.
When it comes to vegetables cucumbers do well now and can be planted up to March. An inter-row spacing of 1 m is recommended with an in-row spacing of 40–60 cm. It is also important to note that they require well-drained fertile soils. Baby Marrow (Zucchini) can be planted now to March, at an inter-row spacing of 1 m and in-row spacing of 60–80 cm. Baby marrow can be picked every 2–3 days once ready for harvesting.
December is the last recommended month when butternut can be grown with an inter-row spacing of 1.5–2 m and an in-row spacing of 0.8–1 m. Chilli also fares well during this time up to February. Prior to planting seedlings are best propagated in trays to then be transplanted at 50 cm and 70 cm.
Pepper (Sweet/Green Pepper) can be planted from now to February at an inter-row spacing of 75 cm and an in-row spacing of 45–60 cm. Then okra does well now to March at an inter-row spacing of 75–90 cm and an in-row spacing of 30 cm. It loves heat and is perfect for Zimbabwe’s summer.
Let us always remember to do soil tests and their interpretation before planting, have agronomic budgets made, hire/use corresponding staff with practical project experience and knowledge and to follow the daily, weekly and monthly agronomic activities for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
God-willingly 2026 brings new opportunities, more growth and more profitability. We march forward as we lift the green on our national flag higher. Aluta continua!
The writer is Engineer. Tapuwa Justice Mashangwa, GCEO Emerald Investments, CEO DataFarm, CEO Emerald Agribusiness and CEO TranslateZW. He can be contacted on +263771641714 and email: [email protected] or [email protected].
