Agriculture Ministry Gears Up for Summer Crop Harvest

By Regina Pasipanodya

As Zimbabwe prepares for its summer crop harvest, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Road Development has assured farmers that it has put in place measures to ensure a smooth and timely harvesting process.

The government has put in place measures that will make sure that all crops are collected on time paving way for winter cropping.

The Deputy Director for Agriculture Engineering, Mechanisation, and Farm Infrastructure Development, Engineer Harrison Bhasikoro explains the Nation’s preparedness for the summer harvesting season as the government has been procuring equipment in preparation for the harvesting.
“Currently the country is sitting at 313 combined harvesters of which as the government we are in the process of bringing 80 more combined harvests under the Belarus facility phase three, which will amount the number of, which will take the number of combined harvests to around 400 combined harvesters in this country. And if we take that and say that each combined harvester can do at least say 10 hectares per day, then we will see that our capacity as far as harvesting of the 2024/2025 summer cropping will be roughly around 4,000 hectares per day minimum. So if we consider a 150-day harvesting, then our minimum capacity will be close to 700,000 hectares minimum.

“So as a country, we are prepared as far as combined harvester servicing is concerned. It’s not like all farmers will request the combined harvester services, but also some farmers will do shelling and threshing. So as all from the study that we carried out also, we are as a country also prepared as far as threshing and shelling services are concerned,” said Bhasikoro.

Eng. Bhasikoro added the Agriculture Ministry is also calling up farmers who require services shelling and threshing to approach their offices, be it a provincial office or district office where they can register for services.
“We are working hand in glove with our AFC Leasing Company, and other private public entities like ARDA. They will also assist as far as harvesting of the crop is concerned,” he added.

This follows as Zimbabwe is expecting a bumper harvest, after experiencing Elnino-induced drought which affected the country last season. The Ministry’s preparedness to harvest all the crops on time will enable farmers who want to switch from summer to winter wheat.
With an estimated 600 combined harvesters needed for harvesting across the country, the government is making frantic efforts to achieve the 600 by he year 2026. So we are prepared as a government to remove all the crops on time.