HARARE, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's 2017 maize output increased four-fold to 2.1 million tonnes in 2017 from 511,000 tonnes last year due to favorable rains and increased support to farmers, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.
"In total, about 1,770,389 hectares were put under maize during the 2016/17 farming season, with anticipated maize yields of over 2 million tones," the Ministry said in its 2017 first quarter treasury bulletin.
It said the 2.1 million tonnes of maize, together with small grains, should give over 2.7 million tonnes of grain this year, well above the national requirements of 1.8 million tonnes.
The increased yields are despite flooding and outbreak of armyworm as well as various diseases which affected crops and livestock in some parts of the country during the farming season.
Chinamasa said there was increased support from government, private players and development partners towards agriculture, the mainstay of Zimbabwe's economy.
The support targeted farmer programs, which included the Presidential Input Support Scheme, Cotton Input Scheme and the Special Maize Program for Import Substitution commonly known as command agriculture.
"These schemes were complemented by contract farming arrangements as well as own-farmer financing initiatives," he said.
According to Chinamasa, government supported the Presidential Inputs Scheme to the tune of 30 million U.S. dollars while 42 million dollars was channeled towards cotton production.
Treasury also contributed 80 million dollars towards agriculture while the private sector put in 264 million dollars, he said.
The bumper maize harvest comes after Zimbabwe in 2016 experienced one of its worst droughts in recent years, which left a quarter of the rural population in need of food aid.
The Ministry of finance said following the success of the special maize command agriculture scheme during the 2016/17 agriculture season, government had embarked on command winter wheat production in an endeavor to reduce wheat imports.
The program is targeting 70,000 hectares at average yields of 5 tonnes per hectare and already 881 farmers with hectarage of more than 56,000 ha had been registered, the ministry said.
Cotton production was also expected to increase to 100,000 tonnes, up from 32, 000 tonnes last year.
