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Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
has a well-established history of potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
cultivation, although production levels have been declining since the 20th century due to a lack of knowledge of cultivation methods and the rising costs of farming.
History
Potatoes were well established in contemporary Zimbabwe by the early twentieth century. In 1911, variety trials were undertaken with recorded yields up to 11.5 tonnes/ha. To avoid the introduction of pests that may hinder the production oftobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, one of Zimbabwe's most profitable cash crop
A cash crop or profit crop is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") ...
s, the government decided early on that local potato production would be a priority. Additionally, a national breeding programme, which subjects imported potatoes to heavy quarantine, was instituted in 1956 and has been the only such programme that is authorised to do so. After the programme's institution, the mean crop yield rose by about 9 tonnes/ha. The production of potatoes in Zimbabwe is protected under the Plant Pests and Diseases (Seed Potato Protection) Regulations in Statutory Instrument 679 (1982), although farmers themselves bear the responsibility to safeguarding their crop from diseases.
Production levels in recent years have been dwindling, however, due to rising production costs – in July 2017, a hectare of potatoes in Zimbabwe cost US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
12,000 to produce. The chairperson of the Zimbabwean Potato Council blamed this on South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
's dumping of cheaper potatoes. A 2015 study also found that most farmers lacked the technical know-how, with regard to potato-farming.
Consumption
Although many Zimbabweans like eating potatoes, consumption of potatoes in Zimbabwe typically occurs in urban areas, where the average household income tends to be higher; those residing in the poorer enclaves of Zimbabwe are unable to afford potatoes. According to unpublishedFood and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
estimates from 1986, 88 percent of the of potatoes available in Zimbabwe were used for consumption, with per capita consumption around . When asked about the famine and growing food shortages in the country in 2005, President Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...
claimed there was no problem and said that "if hungry Zimbabweans cannot have corn, they should eat potatoes instead. We have heaps of potatoes but people are not potato eaters."
See also
*Agriculture in Zimbabwe
Agriculture plays a crucial role in the lives of Zimbabweans in rural and urban areas. Most of the people in rural areas survive on agriculture and they need support for them to get good yields.
Agriculture in Zimbabwe is overseen by the Ministry ...
* Economy of Zimbabwe
The economy of Zimbabwe mainly relies on the tertiary sector of the economy, also known as the service sector of the economy, which makes up to 60% of total GDP as of 2017. Zimbabwe has the second biggest Informal economy in the world as a perc ...
* Land reform in Zimbabwe
Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white Zimbabweans of European ancestry, who had traditional ...
References
Further reading
* {{Portal bar, Agriculture and agronomy Agriculture in ZimbabweZimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...