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By Marlvin Ngiza
Farmers have the capacity to produce wheat in excess of national demands if all farming indispensables are in place.
This was said by Zimbabwe Farmers Union Secretary-General, Mr. Paul Zakariya amid bread price hikes being attributed to a wheat deficit caused by a military operation in Ukraine, a major global wheat supplier.
Mr. Zakariya highlighted that a failure for farmers to produce wheat to meet national requirements is a result of challenges faced by farmers in accessing credit facilities and inconsistent power supply, among others.
The farming guru indicated that if farmers are fully financed, wheat production can shoot up like never before hence the elimination of the wheat crisis in the country.
“There are many factors that contribute to the failure to produce enough wheat to meet our national requirements. These include availability and accessibility of credit facilities, consistent supply of power, good crop management, and marketing logistics. For the current season, the availability of credit facilities has been a huge challenge.
“Otherwise, the farming community is able to push wheat production to levels never seen before,” said Mr. Zakariya
Meanwhile, he also attributed high bread prices to the exchange rate instability on both parallel and official markets.
“The main cause of bread price increases is the ever-rising exchange rate on both the parallel and official markets. This is also pushing prices of all other commodities up in our local currency,” added Mr. Zakariya.
A loaf of bread now costs $ZWL559,60 to $ZWL600.