Extension workers dispatched to districts

THE Department of Crop and Livestock in the Midlands has dispatched extension officers in every district to work closely with farmers as the province seeks to improve its yield during the 2017-18 farming season.

The Midlands province has this year increased its hectarage under Command Agriculture and Presidential Input Scheme to 20 000ha from last year’s 17 000ha.

Midlands provincial crop and livestock officer Mrs Madeliner Magwenzi said the extension officers were also conducting awareness campaigns in all the districts and giving farmers tips to improve their yields.

She said the country was working on retaining its status as the bread basket of Southern Africa.

“We have seconded at least two officers in every district to work with farmers while giving them tips on the variety of seed to plant depending on the type of soil.

“We are also having training workshops in every district and we have started with Zvishavane and Mberengwa districts, conducting awareness campaigns on how they could increase their yields by planting suitable seed varieties as well as pest control,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said the extension officers were also educating farmers to be on high alert of the deadly fall armyworm which was a menace throughout the sadc region last year.

She said the fall armyworm, which caught many farmers unawares, greatly affected the yield last year.

“Training workshops have started and we will be conducting these workshops throughout the province. As part of the campaigns, we will also be urging farmers to be on the look out of the fall armyworm.

“This is a dangerous pest that can affect our yield and we have said farmers should have pesticides on standby to deal with it,” she said.

The fall armyworm, which is believed to hibernate underground, surfaces when new plants start developing.

Mrs Magwenzi said they were also urging farmers to plant small grains.

“We are also urging farmers to also plant small grains. There is a temptation that farmers would concentrate on maize because of the lucrative price that it attracted this season. Our advice is that farmers should also consider small grains. They also attract good money,” she said.

She said the reason why the department was dispatching extension officers was to avoid last year’s predicament were some farmers failed to apply proportional pesticides which later poisoned their crops.

Mrs Magwenzi urged farmers to always seek advice from extension officer in their districts.

“Last year, we experienced cases where farmers were ill advised by bogus experts and ended up poisoning their crops,” she said.