Govt Turns To Command Wheat Farming ⋆ Pindula News

The Command Farming programme has been expanded to include winter wheat farming with 77 000 hectares of land earmarked for the crop this season.

This comes as there is not only a shortage of bread, but the central bank has to avail scarce foreign currency for the importation of wheat.

Monica Mutsvangwa, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister revealed during a post-Cabinet media briefing on Tuesday that private sector players have been roped into wheat production. She said:

77,000 hectares are already contracted under Command Agriculture and the private sector is subcontracting more hectarage.

That figure can increase given that we are at the beginning of the season and more farmers can register. Wheat can be planted all the way to the end of May.

All critical inputs for the wheat production programme are now in place.

Command Agriculture is a Soviet-style programme that was introduced by the government towards the end of 2016. Under the programme, farmers are given inputs to produce grain.

The farmers will pay for the inputs when they deliver the harvest to the Grain Marketing Board. The main thrust of the programme is to guarantee the availability of grain staples for the nation.