The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
A RANDOM assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development has revealed that almost 90 percent of rain-fed maize which was planted for this season is now a write off due to the scorching heat and erratic rains the country has been experiencing.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira (responsible for crop production and irrigation development) painted a gloomy picture of prospects of a meaningful harvest from the 2015/16 farming season.
“It’s been a very bad season. Only farmers with irrigation schemes are likely to have a meaningful harvest otherwise for the rest of the farmers the maize crop is completely a write off though some might salvage something if it rains in the next three weeks.
“There is need to invest more in irrigation schemes rehabilitation and development as relying on rain has proved disastrous.
We are also encouraging communities to assist Government in setting up boreholes to improve availability of water sources in their areas as livestock is also under threat from depleting water sources,” Dep Minister Marapira said.
Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) Matabeleland South provincial officer, Mr Judiya Ncube said farmers who cropped maize following the early rains in November last year, which were received in some parts of the province were not going to reap anything as their crop is at a stage of permanently wilting.
“The early planted crop, which was put to the ground sometime in November (last year) after a few isolated showers in some areas is gone with most of it permanently wilted and there is nothing which will be expected from that.
“The province only received isolated showers, which didn’t cover most areas. Most of the farmers didn’t even go to plough.
Everything is looking bleak and even if it rains we are only looking at harvesting crops like cow peas,” Mr Ncube said.
In normal seasons, most parts of Zimbabwe receive rains between early October and March, but of late rains are received later than usual and the country is experiencing longer mid-season dry spells.
“Due to the effects of climate change one will never know weather patterns. We now have to rely on irrigation schemes and make sure these are rehabilitated as we are unlikely to get anything substantial from rain-fed agriculture,” Mr Ncube said.
Matabeleland North Provincial Agritex Officer, Mr Dumisani Nyoni said the early planted maize crop in his area of jurisdiction was at various stages of destruction following a prolonged hot period.
“There are farmers that did dry plant and their maize is either at permanent or temporal wilting point. The permanent one is the one which will not survive even if it rains while the temporal has a slight chance of surviving. Some of the farmers did dry planting and it never rained in their areas thus the seed is still to germinate,” Mr Nyoni said.
Due to lack of rains, some farmers in the southern parts of the country failed even to plant. Government plans to import up to 700 000 tonnes of the staple maize this year to avert hunger as the El Nino weather pattern brings poor rains and affects crops in the Southern African nation.
Last year, the Government imported only 100 000 tonnes as of November, but Agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made recently said the country had received less than three quarters of its rainfall needs in November and December, the first two months of the agricultural season, which will worsen food shortages.
The Government would allocate $260 million to import between 500 000 and 700 000 tonnes of maize, he said.
The El Nino weather pattern follows last year’s drought in Southern Africa and will add misery to the world’s poorest continent, already hit by a collapse in commodity prices triggered by China’s slowing economic growth.
