Zim to import 70pc of soyabean needs

harvested between 60 000 tonnes and 70 000t of the legume last season. This is about a third of the total national requirements.
“Last season soya bean yields were seriously affected by hostile weather, late planting and in some cases failure to plant. Some of the late planted crop failed to reach maturity while some farmers got yields as low as one to one-and-a-half tonnes per hectare,” he said.
Professor Mpepereki said the country needed at least 200 000t annually to adequately meet demand.
“The biggest challenge the country is facing at the moment is how to empower the producers to increase production.
“This makes it critical for Government to roll out farmer training programmes spearheaded by Agritex and university agricultural research scientists,” he said.
He also challenged financial institutions and other organisations to chip in with input support programmes for the farmers.
Seed production by farmers, he said, was one very critical issue that had been stopped but needed to be urgently revived.
Professor Mpepereki lamented the collapse of markets during the 2007 to 2009 period when local producers were elbowed out of business by imported products.
“We anticipate that if there is a programme to be introduced, the strategy should be for farmers to take up seed production to broaden the seed grower base.
“The shortage of soya has significant implications on industrial capacity utilisation since some raw materials are derived from the crop. Soya provides raw materials for food processing, industrial and livestock feed processing, which is not happening at the moment,” said Professor Mpepereki.
He said soya had the capacity to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product of the country significantly. “It is also a soil improving crop that fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere thereby contributing to improved agricultural output as well as industrial output.
“We require policy support, finance to enable farmers to repay loans, start value addition and use the products to start other economic empowerment projects,” said Professor Mpepereki.
He added that farmers in the rural communities could use the legume as relish or process it into soya chunks that are the equivalent of meatballs.