Established 1930 Agritex must work overtime to ensure bumper harvest

THE country has received good rains over the past weeks and hopes are high that farmers will get good yields this year. The rains also come at a time when Government has initiated the Command Agriculture programme which seeks to increase crop production countrywide and ensure food security.

A considerable number of farmers from each province countrywide took up the good offer of Command Agriculture where they were provided with inputs by Government, and a snap survey carried by this publication last week shows that the programme will bring the desired results.

A visit to one such project, Arda Maphisa in Kezi, Matabeleland South, where part of the crop is under Command Agriculture showed that the early planted crop was now tasseling while the late planted crop is at vegetative stage. According to the estate manager Mr Alec Chinyai, 480 hectares is under Command Agriculture, with a total production target at 4 800 tonnes of maize grain.

“We are expecting to start harvesting at the end of March. We also have an additional 51 hectares under irrigation pasture. We are generally happy with the quality of the crop and we expect a bumper harvest. The Command Agriculture project has been successful,” he said.

The agriculture sector plays a key role in the country’s economy and food security is one such crucial area that has kept Government on toes, especially after the drought that hit the country last year, which saw the Government channeling a lot of resources towards importing maize into the country for free distribution. It is hoped that this year, there will be no need for the Government to import maize, which means it will give the Government the latitude to use resources to look at other areas.

Nonetheless, what it means is that farmers in rural areas and even in farms should be given adequate information on how to manage their crops so that they maximise on yields. The good rains we have received and the good initiative of Command Agriculture means that the work of the Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services, which falls under the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, has been cut out.

The mandate of Agritex is “Through its specialist branches, provincial and district offices, Agritex’s mandate is to provide technical and advisory services, regulatory services, farmer training, food technology (including post harvesting processing and product development) dissemination of technologies and provide market oriented extension for sustainable farming.”

And with excessive rains and a plague of fall army worms that has spread to all the country’s provinces, it means the department must work overtime. Agritex Plant Protection Research Institute head, Dr Godfrey Chikwenhere told Zimpapers Syndication that the fall armyworm outbreak has spread to all the country’s 10 provinces threatening the country’s food security position.

However, he said, the situation was under control with his department having dispatched teams to all the provinces to try and halt the spread of the outbreak.

“We have so far spent more than US$50 000 to contain the outbreak. We are on top of the situation and we have distributed contingencies in all the provinces. We are still assessing the situation and we are yet to estimate the amount of maize affected.”

Matabeleland North province was the hardest hit, especially on the irrigated crop which was planted when the rainy season started. Nonetheless, we applaud the Ministry for its efforts to make sure the spread of fall army worm is contained and affected areas get remedial attention. The heavens smiled upon us this rainy season and all stakeholders must play their part to make sure that good yields are recorded.