Farai Dziva|Zimbabwe is likely to experience a critical shortage of bread as wheat production declines.

Deputy Agriculture minister Vangelis Haritatos has conceded that Zimbabwe’s wheat production has drastically declined from 186 243 metric tonnes in 2017 to 160 600 metric tonnes last year.

“Last season, the country produced 160 660 metric tonnes of wheat. Our national wheat requirement has increased from between 300 000 metric tonnes in the 1990s to 400 000 metric tonnes currently.

In 1989, the nation produced 325 000 metric tonnes from 56 000 hectares.

In 1990, the country produced 300 000 metric tonnes from 50 000 hectares. This was enough to meet the country’s need for soft wheat.

However, we still had to import the hard wheat which we do not produce in our country,” said the Deputy Minister.