Brian Rungano Temba
Cabinet last night announced that it was expecting a bumper harvest in the 2021/2021 cropping season.
Zimbabwe received above-normal rains during the 2020/2021 summer season which ended prematurely for most districts.
Southern and central regions experienced wet spells in December and January causing nutrient leaching in most crops.
Regardless, the results are still generously promising.
The projections shared by Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa showed that the country may not have to a single grain of maize this year. They are as follows;
• Maize production is estimated at 2 717 171 metric tonnes, which is 199 percent higher than the 907 628 metric tonnes produced in the 2019/2020 season.
• Traditional grains production is projected at 347 968 metric tonnes, which is 128 percent more than the 152 515 metric tonne output of the previous season.
• The total cereal production projection is 3 075 538 metric tonnes, against a national cereal requirement of 1 797 435 metric tonnes for human consumption and 450 000 metric tonnes for livestock.
• Cotton production is estimated at 195 991 metric tonnes in the 2020/2021 season, which is a 94 percent increase from the 101 000 metric tonnes in the 2019/2020 season.
• Tobacco production is estimated to increase by 8 percent to 200 245 metric tonnes from 184 042 metric tonnes in the 2019/2020 season.
• Soya bean production is expected to increase by 51 percent to 71 290 metric tonnes from 47 088 metric tonnes last year.
• Sweet potato production is estimated to increase by 269 percent sugar beans by 142 percent and groundnuts by 139 percent.
“The assessment further indicates that while the livestock situation still requires attention, there has been a marked improvement in the state of affairs,” Minister Mutsvangwa said.
The national beef cattle herd increased from 5 443 770 cattle in the previous season to 5 478 648 this season, and the average national cattle mortality rate decreased from 12 percent in 2019 to 4.2 percent in 2020.
“This was due to improved disease control efforts, such as from the Presidential Tick Grease Scheme, and improved nutrition due to the good rainy season.
Farmers are urged to go and collect their tick grease allocations from their local GMB Depots,” added Minister Mutsvangwa.
Egg production is increasing, reaching a new high of 59.3 million dozens in 2020, surpassing the 2019 production by 18 percent, which was 50.4 million dozens and 7 percent higher than the previous record of 55.3 million in 2016.
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