By Own Correspondent- The country has enough grain reserves to feed the nation until the next harvest, Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri has revealed.

Shiri said the country has more than 1,3 million tonnes of maize in stock.

He said this on Monday during a lecture at the Zimbabwe National Defence University where he was delivering the lecture on “The future prospects of agriculture in Zimbabwe with particular emphasis on Command Agriculture”.

Said Shiri:

“Command Agriculture has been central to increasing the production of maize, the second largest contributor to agriculture Gross Domestic Product, raising strategic grain reserves and foreign currency, saving through import substitution.

This contributes to economic growth, food and monetary security and ultimately resulting in socio-political stability across the country. This is the nexus between food security and national security at large.”

Minister Shiri said as at November 1 last year, Command Agriculture had delivered 318 673 tonnes of maize, which is 28 percent of total deliveries of 1 138 322 tonnes to GMB.

“The Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) stock of maize are 500 000 tonnes and the commercial stock stands at 823 593 tonnes and when combined they are sufficient to feed the country up to the next harvest or even some months after the next harvest,” he said.

Minister Shiri said although the crop assessment was still underway, indications were that the crops in the major grain producing areas were doing well.-StateMedia