With 300 combine harvesters now available for the record 600 000 tonne harvest, wheat farmers can move fast to bring in the rest of the crop, with 200 000 tonnes already gathered.
Wheat needs to be dry when reaping and farmers also need to guard against veld fires before the main rains come.
The harvest from the record planting will also allow the country to escape the harsh effects of geo-political disturbances in Eastern Europe that have disrupted supply chains, creating shortages of wheat and other commodities globally.
Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services (ARDAS) acting chief director Mr Leonard Munamati said farmers should ensure that they accelerate harvesting this month in view of the impending rains. When wheat is rained on in can be damaged, but more importantly needs to be largely dried out before the combine harvesters move in.
"We are now approaching the start of the summer season and the rains are almost upon us. We would like to encourage all farmers who grew wheat to wind up harvesting. We encourage farmers to harvest by the end of October. Anytime from now we are expecting first effective rains. Let us complete harvesting by the end of this month before we get effective rains which may negatively affect the quality of our wheat," he said.
So far farmers have harvested over 200 000 tonnes of wheat.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Dr Shadreck Makombe recently said farmers should stick to the calendar to avoid compromising the wheat crop.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"The only way we can make sure that we don't lose our crop is speeding up the harvesting process, especially the early planted crop which has the probability of being compromised because of its stage at the moment. l urge farmers to scale up the harvesting process. Farmers should remove wheat before it becomes too dry to avoid losses. Farmers should use combine harvesters offered by Government and other private operators," he said.
Early harvesting of wheat will pave the way for farmers to prepare for the summer season.
The rains that are currently being received may have caused modest delays in harvesting but were mostly too insignificant to affect production and productivity.
Zimbabwe is one of the two African countries together with Ethiopia which are wheat self-sufficient and has been food secure on cereals for many seasons after the Government took deliberate steps to ramp up agricultural production.
