Extension officers train in climate smart technologies
THE Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) in collaboration with World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has embarked on a programme aimed at training extension officers on the production of small grains through application of climate smart technologies.
In an interview with Sunday News Business, after a training workshop of Binga District field officers recently, Matabeleland North provincial Agritex chief principal agronomist Mr Davison Masendeke said it was important to promote the production of small grains to enhance food security against the background of climate change.
“We held a training workshop in Binga where we trained field officers on production of small grains with emphasis on climate smart technologies including agronomy of small grains, mainly cowpeas and sorghum. We trained them on moisture, water and soil conservation as well as water harvesting technologies. We were trying to address factors that affect yields of small grains, soil structure, plant population, seed variety selection, pest and disease management as well as weed management,” he said.
Mr Masendeke said the need to practice water harvesting technologies was growing due to changes in rainfall and temperature patterns as a result of the effects of climate change.
“Due to climate change and variability we are now having long mid-season dry spells and shorter growing seasons. So, the solution is to have all the water we get from the rain and conserve it and the only way we can do that is to slow the movement on the surface. The second is to spread the water in the field, the third one is to sink that water in the soil and the fourth is to store the water. That way we minimise the effects of dry spells by building moisture reserves in the soils and that will in turn minimise dry spells and increase season length,” he said.
Mr Masendeke said there were numerous soil moisture conservation technologies aimed at minimising the amount of water lost from the soils through evaporation and transpiration.
“The techniques that we are encouraging is doing tide ridges where you open ridges, we can do it by making planting basins, use mulch (dead mulch from stovers, leaves and grass or live mulch using crops such as cow peas and pumpkins in between the major cereal crop), farmers should also construct dead level contours as opposed to conventional contours that tend to release water and they can also put in place infiltration pits,” he said.
The training workshop, which was organised by Agritex, WFP and FAO with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) Zimbabwe being the lead implementer has also been lined up in other districts in Matabeleland North as well.
“We expect the field officers to go out and also train lead farmers in the areas of their jurisdiction with the lead farmers also expected to pass on the expertise to the rest of the farmers,” said Mr Masendeke.