GOVERNMENT has embarked on a nationwide monitoring exercise aimed at evaluating the preparedness of farmers to ensure a successful 2020/21 summer cropping season.
The country seeks to maximise on the normal to above normal rainfall projections this season and hopes to achieve a bumper harvest, which will restore food and nutrition security.
Already, a team led by Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister, Vangelis Haritatos, has started visiting farms and targets sample tours in all provinces across the country.
The team is also doing spot checks of Intwasa/ Pfumvudza plots to cross check and also assess farmers who have adopted the programme.
“I am currently visiting farms in Goromonzi and then will move into other districts in Mashonaland East with the same message. I am also doing spot checks of Intwasa/Pfumvudza plots to cross check our assessments. I will be touring all provinces checking farms at random. This is part of our reviewing exercise,” Deputy Minister Haritatos said in an interview.
“We advise our farmers that the rains that we have received in the last few days are still insufficient to start planting if the farmer relies on rain fed agriculture because the rain was insufficient for the adequate germination of seed and could lead to stunted growth. “What this means is that the farmer will most likely have to replant leading to financial losses.”
The Meteorological Services Department has predicted isolated showers across most parts of the country until Friday. This will then be followed by a slight break over the weekend with another downpour expected in the coming week. At this stage, Dep Minister Haritatos said farmers must focus more on land preparation especially implementing climate smart agricultural techniques. He said beneficiaries of the Climate Smart Presidential Input Scheme under Intwasa/Pfumvudza, which is based on conservation agriculture, should have dug their holes and completed mulching by now.
“Farmers must wait for rainfall in excess of 30 millimeters over a period of at least three days, which in agriculture we call effective rainfall,” he said.
“But I would still encourage our farmers to take advantage of their local Agritex officer to also seek advise on when to plant in their respective agro-ecological zone.”
Based on adequate implementation of Government-supported initiatives, Dep Minister Haritatos said the country was expecting 1.8 million metric tonnes of cereals and 360,000 metric tonnes of oil seeds just from Climate Smart Presidential Input Scheme. He said the Command Agriculture model was also expected to yield good results that will lead Zimbabwe back into the food and nutrition security zone, and finally into becoming the breadbasket of Africa once again.
