Sundaymail Editor
Marjorie Munyonga
A GOOD winter cropping season is always planned in summer and a successful summer season in winter.
Last year, Zimbabwe recorded an all-time high winter wheat output, with farmers delivering 555 824 tonnes of the cereal by the close of the harvesting period.
The impact of this historic harvest is already evident through the uninterrupted availability of bread and related flour products.
This is in addition to some of the areas worst affected by the drought receiving wheat in place of maize under the Government’s food relief programmes.
This is also in line with the Government’s thrust of wheat-based food security, adopted last year as part of the broader response mechanisms to the El Niño-induced drought.
The record-breaking wheat harvest was, to a great extent, a product of concerted stakeholder efforts and collaborations, which highlighted how unity of purpose and corroborative endeavours can propel the country forward, even in the face of adversity.
More importantly, last year’s record brought to the fore the significant role of sound water resources management in agriculture.
In the face of the country’s worst drought in 43 years, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), farmers’ unions and related stakeholders came together to plan effective, efficient and sustainable utilisation of the limited water in the dams and deliver the most successful winter cropping season.
To ensure a successful season and achievement of the 2024 winter wheat target of 120 000 hectares, the authority instituted a thorough water audit in the dams with a view to ascertaining the adequacy of the resource.
Vibrant stakeholder engagements with farmers’ unions, financiers and the farmers themselves on the need to obtain water abstraction agreements and adhere to them at all times followed the water audits.
After planting, and throughout the whole season, the authority would work regularly to monitor water abstractions, including using the geographic information system (GIS) to detect and promptly respond to any acts of illegal water usage, while Zinwa water bailiffs were under strict instruction not to release any water to individuals without water abstraction agreements.
This ensured that all released water was channelled towards legitimate wheat farmers.
To add impetus to the wheat season, the authority introduced seasonal billing for all wheat farmers, giving them an opportunity to access and utilise water during the cropping season and only pay after receiving payments from their financiers or off-takers of their produce through stop-order facilities.
Seasonal billing, coupled with a reduced tariff of US$10,76 per megalitre (one million litres) for all A2 wheat farmers, accorded farmers a chance to carry out their farming activities without any interruptions.
Now that the country has received significantly more rain in the 2024/2025 season than during the 2023/2024 season, there is no other option than to build on the current momentum.
As of February 19, 2025, the national dam level average had risen to 82,7 percent, with a proportion of 49 percent of major dams being full and spilling.
With more rain being anticipated up to the end of March, this development translates to improved and enhanced water security and availability for the coming winter cropping season.
What is only left now is for all stakeholders to once again come together and work on the delivery of another highly successful winter wheat season.
Like we did in 2024, the time is now for us to fully utilise the abundant water resources we currently have, taking advantage of our position as Africa’s second dammed country.
We have the potential to move from wheat self-sufficiency to a position of wheat surplus.
This, without doubt, bolsters our position as a food-secure country with the capacity for import substitution and foreign currency generation.
On their part, farmers need to appreciate that the time to plan a good winter cropping season is summer.
Since water is the second most strategic input in agriculture, coming only after land, farmers should, therefore, start working on the necessary modalities for them to access irrigation water from the dams.
Growers should start working closely with Zinwa to determine their winter cropping water needs.
These requirements will form the basis on which the farmers can approach Zinwa for water abstraction agreements in time for the season.
The agreements will make it possible for the authority to then efficiently and sustainably allocate the available water among competing needs and interests.
Water allocated in accordance with an abstraction agreement is exclusively reserved in the dams for the agreement holder. They are assured of accessing their allocation when they require it. Once they are done with the determination of their water requirements for the season, farmers are encouraged to approach their respective Zinwa service centre or catchment offices and sign their water abstraction agreements.
Because we delivered last year, we have no other choice but to deliver even more this year.
Marjorie Munyonga is the head of corporate communications and marketing at the Zimbabwe National Water Authority.
Online Reporter