HARARE Zimbabwe faces another wheat shortage this year amid indications that the countrys winter output will barely cover 20 percent of national requirements. Latest grain estimates published by the United States-based Famine Early Warning System and Network (FEWSNET) last week showed that output for the winter wheat crop amounted to just 55 000 metric tonnes.
The preliminary winter wheat production estimates for 2009 of 55 000 MT will only cover about 17 percent of national requirements, and is 12 percent less than last season’s production estimate of 62 000 MT, said FEWSNET.
The decline was attributed to unfavourable producer prices and limited financial support for farmers to purchase inputs. Zimbabwean farmers this year planted less than 10 percent of the targeted 100 000 hectares due to lack of working capital, non-availability of seeds erratic electricity supplies. Zimbabwe needs between 350 000 and 400 000 metric tonnes of wheat every year.
Critics of the countrys land reform programme, launched by President Robert Mugabe in 2000, blame it for the plummeting of agricultural production in Zimbabwe. The programme saw white farmers losing their farms for the resettlement of landless blacks whom some say do not have the skills.
Post published in: Opinions