BUSINESS MAVERICK: Zimbabwe forecast to reap biggest maize crop in almost four decades, but yields remain ‘dismal’

The US Department of Agriculture said in a brief report last week that: “Zimbabwe’s corn crop for the 2021/22 marketing year is estimated at 2.7 million tons, an increase of almost 200 percent from the 907,628 tons of maize produced in the 2020/21 MY.”

“The Zimbabwe crop performance stems from the increase in area planting as well as relatively good rainfall. The reason we have this level is because the area planted is at a record level. They have planted the largest area of maize ever, which is about two million hectares,” Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, told“But Zimbabwean yields are still dismal — they are about 1.4 tonnes per hectare,” he noted.

John Robertson, an independent economic consultant based in Harare, said this was in part because of the offer of subsidies which the cash-strapped government probably can’t afford, and a plan to get skilled farmers on the land to repay debts incurred by farmers who were flops.

It’s better than nothing 😂😄

If yields remain dismal, what was the biggest forecast based on?

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