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The Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director Mr Paul Zakariya told Business Chronicle in an interview that there was nothing to talk about from their members in terms of wheat production.
“The hectarage under wheat production by our members this season is very insignificant. There is nothing to talk about in terms of wheat as most of the producers planted nothing except the few that financed the crop on their own,” he said, adding that ZFU has not done crop assessment because of the insignificant land under winter wheat this season.
He said most producers had been discouraged from wheat farming due to lack of funding and power challenges.
In April this year, Government announced that $20 million had been allocated for wheat production this season.
“Only a few weeks ago, people started picking vouchers from CBZ to secure the $20 million allocated by Government.
“Already it is too late to start utilising the money for wheat production as it is as good as throwing the money into the drain,” said Mr Zakariya.
He said in Zimbabwe wheat was at the moment generally viewed as a risk crop as the producer price was not favourable to recover input costs.
Wheat producer price is presently pegged at $460 a tonne.
Mr Zakariya said power supply challenges were likely to worsen wheat output as Zesa was yet to honour its promise to provide the farmers with 50mw during the winter season.
The power utility announced recently that winter wheat farmers would during the season secure 50mw.
Efforts to get comment from Zesa public relations manager Mr Fullard Gwasira were futile as he did not respond to written questions.
Mr Zakariya said a further decline in wheat output means that the country will now have to increase flour imports adding that the land reform programme was being let down.
In a commentary, Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited said: “The multiple challenges are likely to see the 2012 wheat production going down again from 41 000 tonnes in 2011 to 18 000 tonnes. Millers and bakers need to prepare to import the commodity from as far as Turkey, Russia and EU in order to meet local demand.”
Among other challenges, the financial institution said power was always in short supply as Zesa did not have the capacity to generate enough electricity while other alternative sources of power are expensive.
“Although Zesa has entered into a deal with farmers to ensure the constant supply of electricity to wheat growers, its capacity is doubtful as evidenced by past farming season commitments not fulfilled.
Zimbabwe has a national demand of 2 200 mw while the power utility’s capacity so far is 1 400mw resulting in a deficit of 800mw.
Due to the challenges farmers have gone through, land under winter wheat has declined from 14 100ha in 2011 to an estimated 11 000ha this year against a target of 26 000ha Government had projected.
Limited farmer support to finance the crop in terms of inputs as most farmers lack collateral to borrow from the bank as well as tight liquidity constraints are some of the challenges drawing back wheat production in Zimbabwe.
“Farmers are moving away from the crop due to decreasing yields and skills gap to achieve good harvest per ha.”
Zimbabwe requires 450 000 tonnes of wheat to meet its annual consumption requirement and the balance has always been met through imports.
The country has never been self-sufficient in wheat production.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter