Farmers reap benefits of Pfumvudza/ Intwasa concept
THE aggressive promotion of the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme — a low input sustainable agriculture approach to enhance household food and nutrition security has boosted crop yields and smallholder farmer’s resilience.
Zimbabwe adopted the concept in the 2020- 2021 farming season as a way of climate proofi ng agriculture by adopting conservation farming techniques on smallholder farming plots and applying the correct agronomic practices for higher returns.
Its massive uptake has improved yields and enhanced household food security for the majority of smallholder farmers.
Conservation agriculture which is now commonly known as Pfumvudza/Intwasa has been in existence for decades but was more aggressively promoted by the Government in the 2020–2021 cropping season making it to become more popular and widely adopted.
For several years, local and international NGOs tried to popularise it, but fell short in terms of reach and promotion.
But when the Government adopted it and promoted it in a big way, it was widely accepted and adopted as a critical tool for response to the impact of climate change and successive droughts which had led to poor harvests in past seasons.
Conservation agriculture integrates a set of soil management practices aimed at minimising soil disturbance and maintaining a constant soil cover.
This large scale promotion of low
input sustainable agriculture approach to enhance household food and nutrition security in the country, was made possible thanks to political will and the willingness of smallholder farmers at the grassroots to heed calls from the Government.
In the 2020 - 2021 season, more than 1,1 million households across the country received inputs under the Government funded Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme.
Most farmers in various parts of the country got record yields following good rains that were received in most parts of the country.
The good harvest realised by Zimbabwe from the last farming season will help slash the import bill by US$300 million and spur economic growth this year.
Zimbabwe is expecting a total harvest of 2,8 million tonnes of maize and 360 000 tonnes of traditional grains from the past season as a result of the good rains and the record yields farmers got with support from the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme.
Good rains and the massive roll out of the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme has boosted the country’s food self-sufficiency levels and food security.
More than $25 billion has been paid to farmers by the Grain Marketing Board.
The grain agency has also made tremendous progress in reducing debts still owed to farmers.
Deliveries have also improved significantly compared to previous years.
By the end of August, GMB reported that it had received over 733 000 tonnes of grain from farmers valued at $26,9 billion. The Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme
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