Good rains excite farmers

BOTH commercial and communal farmers are looking forward to bumper harvests following good rains being received countrywide.

The good rains are proving to be an icing on the cake following the timeous distribution of agricultural inputs by Government to farmers.

Government support commercial farmers under the Command Agriculture contract scheme for summer crops such as maize, soya beans and winter wheat.

This year, Government also launched the historic Pfumvudza farming concept for rural and peri-urban farmers.

Free inputs were delivered to them well before the start of the rainy season.

A tour of some farms and villages in Makoni District this week showed a healthy crop.

In rural areas which are the major producers of small grains such as groundnuts, millet, rapoko and others, the crops are doing very well.

Headlands farmer, Mr Tedious Nyikayaramba of Choko Farm who has 30 hectares of maize under Command Agriculture and is already harvesting his 20ha tobacco crop which was under irrigation, said nothing will stop him from getting a bumper harvest this season.

“We are optimistic of a bumper harvest due to two important factors, which are the good rains we are currently receiving and the early distribution of inputs. We have 30ha of maize under Command Agriculture and we got all the required inputs on time.

“During the past three years we had erratic and unpredictable rains which affected or yields, but this year the rains are good. Inflows into reservoirs like dams is also good as this will ensure that we have enough water for winter crops like wheat and potatoes,” said Mr Nyikayaramba.

National Youth In Agriculture Apex

Council’s Manicaland coordinator, Mr Farai Mapfumo, also expressed optimism of a good farming season.

He urged farmers to apply the required fertilisers to avoid loss of nutrients due to leaching.

“The rains being received are adequate for a bumper harvest. This will also improve the tonnage per hectare especially for maize crop. Farmers must come up with proper contour ridges to reduce run-off.

“We will push for the orderly distribution of inputs in future to avoid a situation where farmers from Manicaland had to travel to other provinces to collect their inputs.

“Rural farmers contracted under the Pfumvudza programme are also doing well and their crops look promising,” said Mr Mapfumo.

The farmers’ optimism comes at a time when Government announced that farmers this year planted 1,4 million hectares of maize, representing a 137 percent rise in the area planted compared to the same period last year, mainly attributed to good rainfall forecast and early distribution of inputs.

The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement is expected to embark on the first round crop and livestock assessment mid this month.

This season, the area under maize is expected to surpass the targeted 1,5 million hectares as farmers are still encouraged to plant short season varieties.

Last year, farmers had planted 612 406 hectares of maize by now.

Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Dr John Basera, confirmed on Monday that the area put under maize was 97 percent of the targeted hectarage.

He attributed the development to early inputs distribution, especially under the Presidential Inputs programmes, training of farmers, empowerment and capacitation of extension workers and robust monitoring and evaluation as dictated by the Agricultural Recovery Plan.