🥜 Groundnuts farming in Zimbabwe
Popular smallholder cash and food crop, valuable in rotation and largely grown by women's groups.
- Season / planting window
- Plant with the first rains, mid-Nov to mid-Dec.
- Best regions
- All regions with light, sandy, well-drained soils. Avoid heavy clays.
- Spacing / population
- 45 cm x 10 cm for Spanish types; 60 cm x 15 cm for Virginia (Nyanda, Ilanda).
- Expected yield
- 1–2.5 t/ha unshelled.
Stage by stage
Land preparation
Sep – Nov
- Plough to 20 cm and work to a loose, fine tilth — pegs must penetrate easily.
- Avoid compacted or crusting soils; apply lime/gypsum where calcium is low.
Fertiliser and chemicals
- FertiliserSingle super phosphate
150–250 kg/ha · At planting
- FertiliserGypsum (calcium sulphate)
300–500 kg/ha · At flowering/pegging
Critical for pod filling in sandy soils.
Field tip
Aflatoxin rejection is the number one market risk — dry properly and sort out damaged kernels.
The rest of this groundnuts guide
- 4 more stages, from land preparation through to storage
- 5 more fertiliser, herbicide, pesticide and fungicide entries with rates
- All field tips, plus the printable and downloadable version
- Your own crop, cost and activity records in the FarmInvest app
Full farming cycle guides
Free and complete — land, equipment, crops, inputs and harvest.