High electricity bills force farmers to abandon irrigation

28 Sep, 2014 - 00:09 0 Views
High electricity bills force farmers to abandon irrigation irrigation

The Sunday News

Mesabe Ncube
FARMERS specialising in crop production in the  prime agricultural area of Esigodini have abandoned commercial farming due to high electricity bills.
The farmers, who have been using electricity to power their boreholes to irrigate their fields said exorbitant Zesa bills forced them out of cropping activities.

“It is no longer profitable to continue growing crops,” explained one farmer, Mr Nkosilathi Mlilo.
“The amount we use for power is more than what we get from sales of our produce so it’s better to do other projects that do not need too much water.”

He said eight months after abandoning cropping, he is still struggling to settle his electricity bill.
Before he stopped farming in January this year, Mr Mlilo was specialising in growing maize, sugar beans and butternut.

Another farmer, Mr Lerato Gumbo who was also affected by the same problem said he would rather wait for the rains than irrigate crops as it was very expensive.

“My borehole is billed under ZEDTC commercial tariff whereas the main house is billed under the agricultural tariff, so it’s not worth it at all,” he said.

Contacted for comment, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union president Retired Major Abdul Credit Nyathi said his organisation was aware of the problem and efforts were underway to resolve it.

“Zesa is willing to adjust their pricing but they want farmers to consider farming viable crops that will generate more income,” said Rtd Maj Nyathi adding: “For example wheat and maize generate more money than vegetables.”

He also said his organisation was in the process of getting all the farmers together so that they jointly look into the viability of their farming activities.

Like most parts of Matabeleland region, Esigodini is a semi-arid area which depends on irrigation schemes and boreholes for farming activities.

A majority of the farmers sell the bulk of their produce in Bulawayo.
The area is also home to the Esigodini Agricultural College, which has trained thousands of farming graduates covering subjects such as crop production, animal production, engineering and farm agri-business management.

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