Zimbabwe has missed its target to raise wheat output to a record 500 000 tons after farmers reduced plantings, raising fears of bread shortages, the official Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Farmers planted about 58 000ha of wheat, considerably lower than the 110 000ha targeted by the government in a bid to boost food security, the newspaper said.
Zimbabwe has suffered food shortages since 2001, which President Robert Mugabe’s government attributes to drought but which critics blame on his policy of seizing white-owned land that has hit commercial farming.
Wheat is the country’s second staple crop after maize, and Zimbabwe has in the past few years failed to satisfy its annual wheat consumption of between 400 000 and 450 000 tons.
”Given these statistics and this trend, total production will be about 218 046 tons. This implies a deficit of 168 954 tons, which the country has to import,” the Herald said, quoting a report by Rugare Gumbo, economic development minister.
The report said shortages of fertiliser and seed, fuel and erratic supplies of electricity, which is required for irrigating the crop, had hit output.
On Friday Zimbabwe’s state-owned power utility said most parts of the country were without electricity after the failure of two generating units at Kariba Power Station in the northern part of the country.
The government has said the country will harvest 1,8-million tons of maize during the 2005/6 season although some farmer groups and aid agencies predict a much lower output.
Zimbabwe is mired in an eight-year recession marked by the world’s highest inflation rate at over 1 000%, shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, all widely blamed on Mugabe’s policies.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies running down the economy and instead blames the West for sabotaging the country in retaliation for his land seizures. — Reuters