Our handling of Covid-19 was salutary; today, we can say we are past the hump, even though I continue to urge against complacency. The pandemic is still not fully defeated, and we must never lower our guard. Our carefully wrought balancing act made sure the needful Covid-19 measures were not pursued at the expense of Agriculture and national food security. That way, we tamed the second C which vexed many nations of the world.
The conflict in Eastern Europe is for Europeans. It is not our war. We should never allow such faraway conflicts to import vulnerabilities into our own nations and economic systems. Our conflicts here in Africa never affect the West; they never lose sleep because conflicts, diseases or disasters have hit Africa. Similarly, our continent must sterilise itself against shocks triggered by faraway conflicts or adversities. That means building resilience here on our continent, at national, sub-regional and continental levels. We in Zimbabwe have thus largely escaped the ruinous Three Cs.
When conflict broke out in Eastern Europe, causing a serious breakdown in global supply systems, I made a special appeal to our farmers, especially those on irrigated land, to double their efforts in growing wheat for national sufficiency. We could no longer count on imports from Eastern Europe, a region already embroiled in war. I made the call at very short notice.
Yet our farmers rose to the occasion, mustering a response which is nothing short of miraculous. Today, I pay tribute to all our farmers; they worked extra hard in order to beat time and circumstances. The odds against them were heavy; yet we did it. Three cheers for our hardworking farmers!
Figures bring out our enviable success story quite clearly. At the inception of the Second Republic, we managed to produce a mere 30 000 tonnes of wheat, barely enough to meet our national requirements for two months. In the 2019/2020 season, our wheat output rose to about 164 000 tonnes from about 44 000 hectares we put under cultivation. This was an improvement, but hardly closer to meeting even half of our national requirements.
In 2020/21 seasons, and after several initial remedial interventions, our wheat output rose to more than 337 000 tonnes, on about 67 000 hectares, itself quite a remarkable improvement from the previous year, but still short of our yearly national requirement of 360 000 tonnes. The pointers were clear: though still short, we were on the right path.
In the current 2021/2022 season, and after my plaintive call and the measures we adopted, our farmers put a staggering 80 000 hectares under wheat crop! We expect about 405 000 tonnes, against our original planned crop on 75 000 hectares which would have given us 380 000 tonnes. This means this year we will meet our national wheat demand, even enjoying a surplus of slightly over 40 000 tonnes which will go into our Strategic Wheat Reserves. We have successfully import-substituted, thus releasing precious foreign currency to other needy areas. Above all, we are set to deal a telling blow on food inflation, thus moving closer to stabilising our Economy.
I am overjoyed and quite confident that we will do even better next year, thus making our country a leading wheat producing nation. I now direct Government to include inputs for wheat under the Presidential Input Scheme to cover and support farmers in Region One and Two where wheat production under micro-irrigation projects are possible. These areas include Chimanimani, Chipinge and parts of Nyanga where our communal farmers have been producing the crop without direct Government assistance.
Our AFC Leasing Company has mobilised 46 combine harvesters to assist farmers in harvesting this record wheat crop. That brings our national fleet to 170 combine harvesters. We have more equipment coming very soon, so we are adequately mechanised as an Agricultural Economy.
I am happy the whole-of-Government approach saw beneficial synergies being achieved across Government departments: from energy and water supply right through to fighting quelea birds which destroy our wheat crop.
The hallmark of the Second Republic is converged effort on key result areas. That is what we mean by whole-of-Government approach. Indeed, the same formulae must be employed as we prepare for the summer season, which is already upon us.
Again, three cheers to our wheat farmers!
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