Plant maize, sorghum, Siavonga farmers advised

FARMERS in Siavonga have been urged to plant both maize and sorghum in order to guarantee good harvest and food security at household level.

Siavonga District Commissioner Lovemore Kanyama said in a statement to the Daily Nation that farmers have received both maize and sorghum seeds to improve the harvest in the area.

‘’The government gave each farmer sorghum seeds, two bags of D-compound and 1 Bag of urea, Sorghum is more likely to do better than Maize due to the change in rainfall pattern,” he stated.

He said that government also provided a bag of Maize seed, 3 bags of D-compound and 3 bags of urea fertiliser to farmers adding that farmers in the area must concentrate much on planting sorghum owing to poor rainfall obtaining in the area.

‘’Farmers who received Sorghum seed are urged to plant sorghum in case of bad maize harvest in the district. Farmers can have sorghum to feed on in case maize does not yield well. Those farmers who will go against the advice will not be considered for relief food in case maize fails to do well,” he cautioned.

Mr. Kanyama stressed that Government officers from both the Department of Agriculture and Community Development will continue closely monitoring the activities of farmers to ensure that farmers in the area were given proper advice.

He encouraged farmers to abide by the advice given to them by agriculture extension officers.

‘’I encourage farmers in siavonga district to abide by farming advice given to them by agriculture extension officers,”

He disclosed that the district is among the districts in the country that had been hit by hunger, adding that the district has already requested relief food for the affected families in both Chief Sinadambwe and Chief Simamba’s chiefdoms.