‘Deliver all rain-affected wheat to GMB’

GOVERNMENT has encouraged farmers with wheat that was affected by recent rains to continue delivering the crop to the Grain Marketing Board, as it was aware of their plight.

The late harvested wheat crop was affected by the recent rains and some farmers were already counting their losses.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made yesterday said Government was cognisant of the damage to crops and infrastructure as a result of the adverse weather conditions and appealed to farmers not to despair.

“Wheat farmers should deliver their crop to the GMB depots, but they should not mix the good and bad crop,” he said. “They should indicate the bad crop to the GMB. They can also deliver the affected crop at the end.

“We must look at extremes of climate and climate change in relationship to the past dealing with drought, but now we have rainfall, which is also extreme.

“The current rains have continued to be associated with hailstorm and winds and this has had a major impact on crops and farm infrastructure.”

Dr Made urged farmers to take precautionary measures and insure their crops and infrastructure.

He urged experts who deal with farm infrastructure to come up with appropriate mechanisms that could save crops, livestock and infrastructure from the effects of extreme weather conditions.

Dr Made urged extension officers across the country to take images of the damaged crops, compile reports on how the damage occurred and to come up with the cumulative hectarage of the area and crops damaged by the extreme weather conditions at the end of the season.

“Livestock of all classes is also under threat due to such weather, as the animals are being affected and infrastructure is destroyed by strong winds,” he said. “Some earth dams are filling up and there are possibilities of them being washed away and irrigation infrastructure being damaged.”