By Tendai Chisiri
Permanent secretary John Basera
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary John Basera has lauded the Mashonaland West Province for becoming the Bread Basket of the country on a Wheat Filed Day Tour at Mema Estates, Zvimba District Mashonaland West Thursday.
Mema Estates is a joint venture between a farmer Francis Kriel and about nine land holders who are the beneficiaries of the land reform.
The Wheat Field Day tour was on the 450 hectares of wheat. The estate harvest an average of seven tonnes per hectare. 400 kilogrammes basal or compound fertiliser is applied and 350 kilogrammes s per hectare of ammonium nitrate is also applied for high yields.
Permanent secretary, John Basera in an interview with the media said the province is doing well and indeed is emerging as the bread basket of Zimbabwe whilst the country is becoming the bread basket of the region.
“Mashonaland West are contributing about 31% of the total national hectarage this winter. They are sitting on 27 000 hectares out of the 86 000 hectares we achieved this winter as a country,” he revealed.
” Our target as a country was really 90 000 and we managed to 86 000 so far as of last week. We managed to achieve 97% of the target. We have managed to achieve 101% of our initial target of 86 000 hectares of wheat,” Basera said.
“Our next target now is to achieve 420 000 metric tonnes of wheat. This is against the national requirement of 360 000 metric tonnes of wheat”.
“So what it entails is that farmers need to up their game in terms of adapting the agronomic practises, the good crop management practises with regard to irrigation management as well as fertiliser and chemical management which are very critical,”he said.
There is need to upscale the farm productivity levels . The national target in terms of average yield is about 4.9 to 5 tonnes per hectare so that 420 000 metric tonnes of wheat is achieved from the 86 000 hectares obtained this year.
“The 86 000 hectares of wheat for 2023 winter season is a record. We set a record last year of 80 000 of wheat in 2022. We have surpassed what we achieved last year in terms of hectarage for about 6 to 7%,” he added.
” Our theme and creed is to confirm import substitution. We need 100% import substitution in terms of our food so that we drive the food self sovereignty agenda. That will drive the food self sufficiency agenda which the government of the new dispensation is definitely pursuing,” he said.
These are the critical building blocks for a strong economy and the government will definitely need to achieve the 100% import substitution by 2025.
The host farmer , Francois Kriel during the field tour who uses water from Mazvikadei Dam about 8 kilometres away uses the Seedco SC select wheat seed. The seed takes about 140 to 142 physiological maturity.
It is a medium to late hybrid in terms of maturity and goes to a height of about 83 centimetres which is not much as there is no problem of lodging with it. It has glutton content of 30% and protein content of 12-15 %. It also makes good yields for farmers to get back on the field the next season.
Francois Kriel said has been in farming for seven years and it is profitable. He dose crop rotation on the farms that constitute Mema Estates.
” We crop rotate soyabeans and wheat here. Soyabeans are legumes, soya beans leave some nutrients in the soil after harvesting,” revealed the host farmer during the field tour.
He also advised other farmers to manage the water they use to irrigate. ” We use 25 millimetres of water a week with week having 7 days. When it get hot, we put 35 millimetres a week,” he said.
“We were nervous when we planted the wheat fearing power cuts but now never had a power cut for about a week”, said Kriel. He also told other farmers the type of fertilisers and chemicals he uses
.
Wendy Madzura, an agronomist during the field tour lectured on the techniques to have a bumper harvest which she said is driven by the ministry’s mantra ” Going 4Growth”.
She urged the farmers to improve the quality of the wheat yield by controlling the weeds and pests. She advised the farmers on how to take care of the wheat crop and also the importance of using the required millimetres of water for irrigation.
“Having a lot of moisture can also cause a field to have more weeds,” she said. She also said soil type determines the amount of water for irrigation to be used.
In a speech read on behalf of Minister of Provincial Affairs and Devolution Mary Mliswa, she applauded permanent secretary John Basera for tirelessly working for the improvement of farming in the country.
“Permanent secretary came to this province and educated farmers on how to plant wheat. We are very happy that is he is back to see the progress done so far,” she said.
” The permanent secretary John Basera said 30 00 hectares were to be achieved although the target was later raised 32 000 hectares. Now we are bout to reach 27 00 as we have 26 900 hectares planted in the province,” she revealed.
The province has achieved 84% of what it had been targeted to do. It is already 20 000 hectares that it did last year. She bemoaned lack of funding and the late distribution of inputs.
” The challenge for us to reach the target is that the funder Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) reduced the funding to farmers whilst others farmers opted not to farm as they were late to put the seed on the ground,” Mliswa revealed.
She however commended the power supply as load shedding is not erratic. She also thanked permanent secretary Basera for not being an armchair secretary as he meets the people on the ground.
Quail birds are worrisome to wheat farmers and at Mema Estates, they use Quail tox s pesticide to safeguard the wheat crop.
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