HARARE, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Buoyed by the success of its command agriculture scheme targeting maize production in the 2016/17 farming season, the Zimbabwe government is expanding the scheme to other crops to boost food production in a country that has faced perennial food shortages in recent years.
The government launched the scheme in August last year with the aim of ensuring food self-sufficiency after the country in 2016 experienced one of its worst drought in recent years.
The devastating drought left a quarter of the rural population in need of food aid while thousands of cattle succumbed to the drought.
The scheme targeted farmers near water bodies who could put a minimum of 200 hectares under maize per individual.
Each participating farmer was required to produce at least 1,000 tonnes of the staple maize, and commit five tonnes per ha towards repayment of advanced loans in the form of irrigation equipment, inputs and chemicals, mechanized equipment, electricity and water charges.
Farmers would retain a surplus produced in excess of the 1,000 tonnes and each farmer was earmarked to receive 250,000 U.S. dollars. The program's cost was put at 500 million dollars, financed by a local fuel company.
The special maize program is the brain child of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who tasked his deputy Vice President Emmerson Mnangangwa to oversee its implementation.
The command agriculture scheme is the second agriculture scheme to be implemented in Zimbabwe after almost 10 years. The first command agriculture scheme was implemented between 2005 and 2006 and it was called Operation Taguta/Sisuthi.
In that program, the army was given the task of tilling large amounts land as it was peace time and their labor was available.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made said in March that 191,124 ha or 77 percent of land was contracted for the special maize production program and out of that, 153,000 or 62 percent had been planted in all the country's 10 provinces by February 9 this year.
While the minister could not reveal the anticipated maize harvest from the scheme, he said the maize output would be enough to meet the 700,000 tonnes requirement for the National Strategic Grain Reserve, currently holding 250,000 tonnes.
The good rains received in the country this year were also a boost to the command scheme, as a significant portion of the tilled land was under dry land farming.
In his first quarter treasury bulletin released June 8, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said indications from the first round crop assessment survey were that Zimbabwe would record a bumper maize harvest of 2.1 million tonnes from 1.7 million ha that was put under the crop.
This is a huge jump from the 511,000 tonnes produced in 2016 from 1.2 million ha.
The 2.1 million tonnes of maize, combined with small grains, were expected to give over 2.7 million tonnes of grain this year, well above Zimbabwe's national requirements of 1.8 million tonnes.
Chinamasa said the significant rise in maize production was due to resource mobilization efforts by government, private players and development partners.
The support targeted farmer programs such as the annual Presidential Input Support Scheme and the Special Maize Program for Import Substitution (Command Agriculture).
"Consequently, increased yields are anticipated under the 2016/17 agricultural season, notwithstanding some flooding and outbreak of armyworm as well as various diseases which affected crops and livestock in some parts of the country," the minister said.
Government had since banned importation of grain, following the bumper maize harvest. It said it expected to save 500 million dollars from the maize import ban.
Following the success of the special maize program, Chinamasa said government had embarked on a special winter wheat production program similar to that of maize in an endeavor to reduce wheat imports.
He said the program is targeting 70,000 hectares at average yields of 5 tonnes per hectare. Already, 881 farmers with hectrage of more than 56, 000 ha had been registered, he said.
In addition, private financiers had contracted over 14,000 ha for this season's winter wheat crop.
"Wheat output is, therefore, set to surpass 280,000 tonnes this season, which will a go a long way in reducing imports, thus saving the country's foreign currency," Chinamasa said.
