Commercial wheat farmer David Samutela has warned that the country’s wheat production will be reduced by 50% in the 2023/2024 farming season due to drought and load shedding.
Speaking exclusively to the Zambian Business Times, Samutela said that the lack of water, caused by the drought, will result in most farmers producing half a crop this farming season.
This is because most wheat farmers do not have water for irrigation as most of the dams do not have enough water.
He said additionally, load shedding will also affect the production of wheat even further.
Samutela said if the government does not assist farmers amid load shedding, the country’s wheat production will suffer a double tragedy from the drought and load shedding.
According to the Ministry of agriculture, Zambia’s wheat production is currently standing at 277,491 metric tons as of 2022/ 2023 farming season.
He noted that the onset of load shedding will also affect the production of wheat even further.
He further implored the government through ZESCO to help farmers by supplying them with power needed for irrigation to reduce on the negative impact already caused by the drought.
He therefore warned that if the government through ZESCO does not assist farmers amid load shedding, the Country’s wheat production will suffer a double tragedy from the drought and load shedding.
“I’m not sure about the figures but most farmers will produce half a crop. The production of the crop will be about 50% for this year because of the lack of water as a result of the drought. Most farms do not have the water because the dams for most farms are not full,” he said.
“This is the beginning of the wheat season. This is when farmers are preparing to plant the crop and load shedding is still on. Load shedding has an effect on wheat farming because as farmers we need to irrigate all the time so load shedding will definitely have a very big effect on wheat farming.”
“The president promised that government would work out something to ensure that ZESCO gives us some power. So we are hoping that ZESCO works out something for us or else we will have a double tragedy because we’ve had drought and now we have this serious situation of electricity that will definitely affect our production. So ZESCO should supply power to the farmers as they have already reduced their production by 50%,” said Samutela.
