ROSILINE MUTARE
Gweru- Farmers in the Midlands Province have put over 10 000ha under winter wheat this season which is 1 000ha above target.
Midlands Provincial Agronomist, Innocent Dzuke, said he is happy that the province managed to surpass the 9 000ha target.
“Farmers in the Midlands province successfully put over 10 000 ha under winter wheat – a 1 000ha more above the 9 000ha target that had been set for this season. Having set a winter target of 6 450 ha the province last year managed a record 7 378 ha and produced 49 238tons of harvest,” he said.
Farmers from Gokwe South managed to put 74 ha, Mberengwa 442 ha, Shurugwi 108ha, Gweru 459ha, Kwekwe 8 063ha, Zvishavane 136ha, Mvuma 753ha giving us a total of 10 035 ha under winter wheat crop.”
He said since planting has stopped, focus is now on improving yield through best management practices such as pest, disease, weed control, right amount of AN application and water management.
“These are key to improving wheat productivity because we want to achieve 70 245 tonnes of harvest from the 10 035ha planted,” said Dzuke.
Last year’s production of 375 000tons made Zimbabwe and Ethiopia the only two wheat-secure nations on the continent.
Locally, farmers are responding to Government’s initiatives as they ramped up preparations for the farming season.
The bulk of the planting was done under the Government guaranteed CBZ Agro-Yield programme, while the other hectares were funded by private contractors and through the Presidential Winter Wheat Scheme.
