Sable assures farmers

Published: 09 July 2014

THE country's sole ammonium nitrate (AN) fertilizer manufacturer, Sable Chemicals, has assured farmers of enough stocks of the commodity for the winter wheat cropping season.

Sable Chemicals chief executive officer, Jack Murehwa, said the fertilizer manufacturer and its distributors were sitting on over 30,000 tonnes of the commodity which he said is sufficient for the cropping season.

"There is enough fertilizer to meet the requirements of the winter wheat cropping season. In fact between us and the fertilizer distributors we have over 30,000 tonnes of fertilizer. I know that the tonnage that is on the market is way more than what the winter crop requires," he said.

Murehwa said the Kwekwe based fertilizer manufacturer is operating at 45 percent capacity producing between 70,000 tonnes and 80,000 tonnes of the commodity annually.

He said there are plans to increase production to 100,000 tonnes this year.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wonder Chabikwa said hectarage under wheat would be slightly lower than that of last year.

He blamed the low producer prices, power outages and high production costs for the farmer apathy in taking up wheat production.

"I do not have the figure of hectarage under wheat this season but it will not be above that of last year.

"Farmers are facing many challenges from high input costs and power outages which have affected production in the past," said Chabikwa.

"The late harvest of the summer crop also affected production as the winter season started when some farmers were still harvesting their crop which did not give them adequate time to prepare.

"The prices for summer crops such as maize and soya beans are very low to the extent that some farmers are incapacitated to grow wheat this year."

Last year, 4,000 hectares was put under wheat.

The country requires 400,000 tonnes of wheat annually but last year just under 40,000 tonnes were produced and the deficit was offset by imports.
- chronicle