Chivi Wheat Thrives In The Drylands, Backing ‘No Place Left Behind’
The wheat on Marisa’s plot in Mafidi Village stands shoulder-high and uniform, a soft green turning to gold under the Chivi sun. This is Ward 15, a part of Masvingo Province many Zimbabweans still picture as parched cattle country, not a place where wheat thrives.
Yet this 0.7-hectare wheat field is doing just that – thriving – and giving Government fresh evidence for its promise that there will be “no place left behind” in Zimbabwe’s agricultural transformation.
Dryland Wheat, Strong Grain
At a recent field assessment at Mr Marisa’s homestead in Mafidi Village, Agriculture Business Advisory Officer Munhango Tapare walked through the soft wheat variety Serena, planted on 5 May 2026, and came away encouraged.
“The crop is showing strong grain formation and a healthy stand,” said Tapare, noting the even tillering and clean rows. On the 0.7-hectare plot, the farmer is targeting at least 4 tonnes per hectare, with an estimated 2.5 tonnes expected from the area under wheat.
In a district better known for sorghum and drought-tolerant maize, such yield expectations from winter wheat hint at how much latent potential lies in Zimbabwe’s dryland communities when irrigation and inputs arrive together.
How Mafidi Wheat Is Beating The Dry
The wheat in Ward 15 is not surviving on rainfall. The crop is sustained through a careful mix of sprinkler and flood irrigation, with water pumped to supplement the system during critical stages such as grain filling.
FFA Explainer:
In sprinkler irrigation, water is sprayed over the crop like rain, helping achieve even moisture and reducing labour. Flood irrigation channels water along the field so it soaks into the soil. Many smallholders combine both, using sprinklers where pressure allows and simple furrows where equipment is limited.
For Marisa and his neighbours, this hybrid approach is practical. Sprinklers help maintain uniform moisture on higher spots of the field, while flood irrigation takes care of the lower sections. A pump, drawing from a local water source, underpins the entire system.
Protection of the crop is just as deliberate. Rodents are controlled using bait, an old but effective method in rural Zimbabwe. Above the field, improvised scarecrows – old shirts, plastic bags, and tins rattling in the wind – help to deter quelea birds, which can strip a field in days if left unchecked.
Presidential Input Programme On The Ground
The wheat is supported under the Presidential Input Programme (PIP), Government’s rural input support effort that has expanded beyond maize and traditional grains to push strategic crops like wheat into new areas.
FFA Explainer:
The Presidential Input Programme supplies smallholder farmers with seed, fertiliser, and sometimes chemicals and technical support, often on a cost-free or heavily subsidised basis. The goal is to raise food and feed production, support rural incomes, and align with national targets under policies such as NDS1 and Vision 2030.
By backing winter wheat in a semi-arid district like Chivi, the programme is testing and proving a bigger idea: that with water, seed, and knowledge, districts long deemed marginal can contribute meaningfully to national food security.
The Ward 15 plot in Mafidi Village now sits as a live demonstration. Local farmers can see, touch, and ask questions. Extension officers can point to real plants, not just posters, when they talk about wheat planting dates, irrigation scheduling, or pest control.
No Place Left Behind – From Slogan To Soil
Government has framed PIP and related irrigation investments as central to the “no place left behind” agenda, which aligns with Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger.
In practice, “no place left behind” means pushing irrigation and high-value crops into wards and villages that were historically written off as too dry or too remote. Chivi’s Ward 15 is one such place – a district that has felt the full weight of climate change, erratic rainfall, and poor soils.
Wheat was not a common sight here. Farmers mostly planted drought-tolerant crops, often for subsistence, with little surplus to sell. Winter seasons passed quietly, with livestock grazing on stubble and bare fields reflecting the sky.
Now, the sight of a well-managed wheat field in Mafidi is changing local perceptions of what is possible in the dry months. It signals that irrigation can stretch the productive calendar, bringing cash income at times of the year that used to be idle.
Lessons From Chivi For Other Dryland Districts
The Mafidi Village experience in Ward 15 echoes similar small but significant shifts across Zimbabwe’s drylands, from Beitbridge to Gokwe and parts of Matabeleland South, where farmers are beginning to test wheat, horticulture, and seed crops under irrigation.
For policy-makers and farmers alike, several practical lessons stand out from the Chivi wheat story:
- Water Access Is The Foundation: Without the pump and functional irrigation layout, the Serena wheat in Ward 15 would never have left the seed bag. Investing in smallholder-friendly water infrastructure – boreholes, dams, canals, and energy for pumping – remains the first step.
- Right Variety, Right Timing: The choice of Serena soft wheat and the planting date of 5 May 2026 place the crop well within the winter window, giving enough cool days for tillering and grain filling before the heat picks up.
- Close Advisory Support: The presence of Agriculture Business Advisory Officers like Munhango Tapare has been central. Farmers draw confidence from seeing technical officers regularly in their fields, not only in offices.
- Simple Pest Control Works: From rodent baiting to scarecrows against quelea birds, basic tools, applied on time, are making the difference between an average and a strong crop.
For neighbours watching Marisa’s field, the message is clear: with organised support and a willingness to try, even dryland wards can grow a crop many associated only with large-scale irrigation schemes in places like Chiredzi or Mashonaland.
Women, Youth, And The Wheat Opportunity
Chivi’s wheat story also touches on questions of who benefits when inputs and irrigation reach the village. In many parts of Masvingo, women carry the day-to-day burden of weeding, irrigating, and guarding fields from birds and livestock.
When programmes like PIP reach households, they often rely on women’s labour and organisation to succeed. Youth, too, play a key role, especially in operating pumps, repairing sprinklers, and handling the more physically demanding tasks around irrigation.
For Government’s “no place left behind” promise to translate into wider rural renewal, support must keep these realities in view: targeting training at women and young people, easing access to small irrigation equipment, and ensuring that returns from crops such as wheat are shared fairly within households and producer groups.
From One Plot To A Wheat Belt?
A single 0.7-hectare field will not change the country’s wheat balance on its own. Yet, as Tapare and his colleagues in the extension service know well, transformation often starts with one visible success that others can copy and adapt.
Chivi’s Ward 15 now has such a field. A living classroom where farmers can see how a soft wheat variety like Serena performs under sprinkler and flood irrigation in a hot, dry district – and how practical pest control can protect grain all the way to harvest.
If more villages like Mafidi take up the challenge, and if irrigation investment keeps pace with the enthusiasm on the ground, the map of Zimbabwe’s wheat production could look very different in the seasons ahead.
The real test of the “no place left behind” promise will be whether what is growing at Marisa’s homestead becomes a once-off success story, or the first field in a chain of dryland wheat plots stretching across districts that, for too long, were written off as barren.
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