HARARE – Struggling power utility, ZESA says 120MW of electricity has been ring-fenced for this year’s winter wheat cropping.
In an update on Monday, ZESA holdings said electricity will be guaranteed to all wheat production clusters under the 2023 winter wheat programme.
“Subsequent to the recent update on the power supply situation on 25 April 2023, ZESA Holdings is pleased to announce that mechanisms have been put in place to guarantee electricity supply to all the winter wheat farmers across the country.
“The utility is cognisant of its role and expectations in powering this sector to achieve wheat self-sufficiency and meet the government’s target of 85,000ha for the year 2023.
“Accordingly, the utility has put in place the requisite modalities to ring-fence 120MW towards this national initiative,” said ZESA.
The winter wheat planting season runs from April to mid-May.
Zimbabwe battles acute power shortages that have seen rolling power cuts which have affected business and further threatened the country’s fragile economy.
The outages have largely been blamed on recurrent breakdown of machinery at the country’s power generating plants, coupled with poor planning by those charged with the job.
ZESA said to minimise the duration of power outages due to network faults throughout the season, it has established support groups for winter wheat farmers for effective communication and expeditious resolution of the faults.
It encouraged farmers to join the groups through their cluster leadership.
Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka said: “We have put farmers into clusters so they can receive uninterrupted power supply.”
During the 2022 season, Zimbabwe harvested 375,000 tonnes of wheat, according to the government.
The country targets to have 85,000ha under wheat this year to be funded through private contractors, government’s National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme, the Presidential Wheat Support Scheme and self-financed growers.
