The Sunday News
Dickson Mangena, Business Reporter
ABOUT 9 300 hectares have been planted under the command agriculture programme across the country after most parts of the country received in the past weeks, an official has said.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Farmers Union chief economist, Mr Prince Kuipa said farmers who got inputs under command agriculture, and are in areas that have received good have started planting.
He said as of last week, about 9 300 hectares of land had been planted and the size is expected to grow as the season progresses.
Zimbabwe earlier this year launched the command agriculture programme, under which Government is targeting to produce 2 million tonnes of maize on 400 000 hectares of land by availing inputs to farmers.
“We have received some rain from different parts of the country and some famers have started planting their seed including those who have benefited from the command agriculture programme rolled out by the Government” said Mr Kuipa.
According to the Meteorological Department, most farming regions around the country are going to receive normal to above normal rainfall for the 2016/2017 farming season
“Region 1 and Region 2 are expected to receive normal to above normal rainfall while Region 3 is expected to receive normal to below normal rainfall,” the met department said.
“In view of the moisture availability and suitable temperature thresholds, those with water should not wait for the main rains to fall. They can plant any time now.”
Mr Kuipa said some farmers were still collecting inputs under the programme.
“Some farmers have already received inputs from Government and others are still collecting the inputs from various places around the country,” Mr Kuipa said.
He said 460 000 hectares of land and a total of about 22 000 farmers had been registered for the command agriculture.
Mr Kuipa said the farming season has started.
“After receiving rains some farmers have stared farming although generally, we do not have statistics to how many farmers have really planted how much. At this point it is really up to the farmers to plant or not to plant depending on the rains they have received,” said Mr Kuipa.
He urged farmers to monitor the amount of rainfall they receive in order to start planting.
Mr Kuipa also said that some farmers were having a challenge in mobilising enough resources for inputs for them to start planting because of the prevailing economic challenges.
“For some farmers, especially small holder farmers, money has also been a challenge to acquire all the inputs they would like,” said Mr Kuipa.
He also said that they were happy with the availability of seed inputs and other fertilisers on the market for those with money.
“In this farming season there is enough supply of other inputs in the shops but we noticed a shortage of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser which is in short supply. I think Government should look into the issue of fertiliser producers to get the necessary help they need to make the commodity available,” Mr Kuipa said.
