By Nyasha Chingono
HARARE, April 17 (Reuters) –Zimbabwe expects to increase its wheat plantings by 33% this year despite a rainfall season impacted by El Nino, a government official said on Wednesday.
The country grows wheat during the southern hemisphere winter starting from around May and the crop is entirely irrigated using dammed water.
Zimbabwe, which faces a huge maize import bill due to El Nino-induced drought, is forecasting a 624,000 metric ton wheat harvest this year, up from 465,458 tons last year.
El Nino is a weather phenomenon resulting from the abnormal warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific, leading to hotter temperatures worldwide.
Deputy agriculture minister Vangelis Haritatos said although Zimbabwe had experienced one of its worst droughts on record during the 2023/24 summer cropping season due, it still had enough irrigation capacity for a bigger wheat crop.
“The indications…are that there will be adequate irrigation water for the winter crop. The total national planting hectarage has actually increased from 90,192 hectares to 120,000 hectares,” Haritatos said in response to Reuters questions.
The government has also reduced the cost of water supplied to irrigated farms by 31% in a bid to boost production.
However, with national dam water levels 10 percentage points lower than the seasonal average, some farmers have indicated they will reduce plantings.
These include the Food Crop Contractors Association, a private sector grouping of commodity traders, offtakers and millers who have been funding the production of crops such as maize and wheat since 2020.
FCCA chairman Graeme Murdoch told Reuters private contractors, who funded 27% of last year’s wheat crop, would reduce contracted plantings to 25,000 hectares from 30,000 hectares last year.
Reporting by Nyasha Chingono; Editing by Nelson Banya and Kirsten Donovan
