The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE rainfall received two weeks ago has enhanced prospects of a better crop yield and lowered cattle poverty deaths, farming experts in the Matabeleland region have revealed.
Matabeleland South Crop and Livestock provincial officer Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi said most of the maize crop in her area of jurisdiction succumbed to moisture stress due to the prolonged dry spell.
“Most of the maize crop in various areas in the province had wilted owing to the prolonged dry spell but there are a few areas that are likely to salvage something after the rains that we received two weeks ago.
However, those that had cropped small grains are assured of obtaining good yields,” she said.
Mrs Ngwabi said the rains also played a big part in improving pastures availability in most parts of the province.
“The rains played an important part in improving grazing, a situation that will likely curb cattle poverty deaths that was proving to be rampant in the province. However, we are still faced with a situation whereby most of the water sources in most areas didn’t receive significant inflows thus watering livestock is still a bit of a challenge,” she said.
Water is the most important nutrient for cattle. It accounts for 50 to 80 percent of an animal’s weight and is involved in every physiological process. Lack of adequate pastures and depleted water sources culminated in increased cattle poverty deaths in Matabeleland.
“We are urging farmers to always have their supplementary feed in stock to guard against unwarranted eventualities in the event of a drought. For instance this season has been dicey thus farmers should always be alert as it is pertinent for them to prepare their own feed,” said Mrs Ngwabi.
Matabeleland North Department of Crop and Livestock agronomist Mr Davison Masendeke said the rainfall which was received throughout the country at the beginning of February has significantly improved the state of crops in the province.
The country’s dry land crops had begun showing signs of moisture stress, with some reaching permanent wilting stage due to erratic rains and high temperatures.
“Generally crops were in a bad state but following the rains received two weeks ago there was a change from temporal wilting to fair and most of the small grains in terms of pearl millet and sorghum is in a good state in most of the areas in the province. Of course we lost part of the maize crop as it had reached permanent wilting stage,” said Mr Masendeke.
He, however, urged farmers to expedite weeding of their fields so as to ensure that the unwanted plants do not compete with the crop for space, water and nutrients while also scouting for pests.
“Following the rains that we received, farmers should be looking at weed control and applying top dressing fertilisers as well as fall army management in cereals,” said Mr Masendeke.
The country was hit by a fall armyworm outbreak, which threatened to hamper its 2016/17 summer season maize crop yield with sporadic outbreaks being recorded in the 2017/18 to date. Last year it was predicted that the country would receive normal rains with bias towards below normal throughout the 2018/19 season with the Meteorological Services Department implying that the country would receive erratic rains during the season.
