Fears over winter wheat harvest

Delays in disbursing a Zim $50 billion (US $9.4 million) loan facility to help farmers produce winter wheat may lead to a significant reduction in the harvest, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) has warned. The Agriculture Development Bank of Zimbabwe (ADB-Z) has yet to disburse the funds, three weeks after the official start of the cropping season. ZCFU director for marketing, Andrew Jiri, said the delay would result in a serious drop in the hectarage put under wheat. "This delay is a huge setback for our members who wanted to venture into wheat production this season. We have already submitted a list of farmers who want to access the loan facility, but the bank has not responded. The winter wheat programme is supposed to be in full swing, and this delay will certainly result in yet another shortfall in the cereal harvest," said Jiri. ADB-Z managing director, Sam Malaba, admitted there had been delays in the processing of loan applications, but said the bank was already taking measures to expedite disbursement to deserving farmers. He said the bank had come up with a stringent vetting system which was meant to ensure that it would be able to recover all funds loaned to farmers. The government introduced the Zim $50 billion facility for cereal farmers in April this year, in a bid to revive declining output in a country faced with serious challenges to its food security. The parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture has also warned of setbacks to the winter farming programme that could hit production. Some of the committee's concerns included the shortage of tractors provided by the Agriculture Rural Development Authority (ARDA), the slow distribution of inputs, and dilapidated irrigation schemes. Due to the lack of rain during the winter months in southern Africa, wheat needs to be grown under irrigation, and ideally on large tracts of land. "Finance is just one of the factors, but it's not the only factor," said an expert involved in commercial farming, who asked not to be named. "The inputs are not there, the irrigation systems are not there, and the skills [to grow wheat among the newly resettled farmers] are not there. I don't believe we have the capacity to produce a decent-sized crop." But Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made has dismissed the concerns of a reduced winter harvest due in September/October. "We are not anticipating any problems. The preparations have gone very well and I am happy to say government has already released Zim $80 billion [US $15 million] to ARDA for the procurement of equipment and the servicing of what is there but broken down. The government has also availed Zim $150 billion [US $28 million] to input suppliers and we expect those to be distributed through ARDA very soon," Made told IRIN. He said the government was forging ahead with the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, with 33,000 hectares of derelict irrigation land already prepared. He added that a Zimbabwe-Iran agricultural equipment supply agreement was also beginning to bear fruit, just in time to contribute to a successful winter season. "As per the agreement between the two countries, Iran has already supplied 23 combine harvesters and we expect these to be at work when the winter farming season ends. More equipment, including tractors, are coming in the next few months," said Made. Although he declined to give a projection for this season's harvest, the Agriculture Rural Extension Services (AREX) has forecast 100,000 hectares under wheat with an estimated yield of 420,000 mt. The commercial farm expert dismissed the AREX figures as "rubbish". He said even in good years, the maximum land under wheat was 60,000 to 65,000 hectares, which he believed had fallen this season to around 30,000 to 35,000 hectares. According to independent estimates, winter cereal production in Zimbabwe (wheat and barley) has more than halved over the past five years, from around 360,000 mt in 1999 to 150,000 mt last year, as a result of input scarcities and the impact of the government's controversial land redistribution programme. Economist John Robertson said low wheat output was unlikely to have an impact on bread prices as millers were already importing flour at below the production costs of local farmers. "It seems the government is trying to pursuade the population that all its policies have worked, and come elections they should be re-elected, when all the evidence is that they have failed," Robertson told IRIN. Although the government has forecast a bumper harvest of over two million mt for the staple maize due in June/July, other analysts have warned the crop is likely to be well below national demand, estimated at 1.8 million mt.