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Monalisa Chikwengo
THIRTY-EIGHT thousand communal farmers in Chirumanzu have the Government’s Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme to thank for their imminent graduation into a 15-tonne club if projections by Agritex that most of them will be scoring maize yields in the region of 15 tonnes per hectare this season are anything to go by.
Agritex district officer for Chirumanzu Mr Owen Mhere said the farmers’ success story was a result of their religious implementation of Government’s climate-proofed Pfumvudza/Intwasa concept.
“At least 38 000 A1 and communal farmers in the district benefitted from the Presidential inputs programme (Pfumvudza/Intwasa) during the 2022/23 farming season.
“Yields obtained for the season are ranging from 0, 8 to 1, 0 tonnes per 0, 0624ha plot, which translates to between 12, 8 and 16 tonnes per hectare,” said Mr Mhere.
The development comes at a time the Government is focused on promoting the adoption of sustainable agriculture production practices that can safeguard production and improve yields.
The Presidential Inputs programme (Pfumvudza/Intwasa) is a climate-smart agricultural initiative that was introduced to help build farmers’ resilience in the face of climate change to ensure crops would not succumb to dry weather easily and compromise food security in the process.
It involves the use of small plots of land, where farmers can grow crops using conservation agriculture techniques. This helps to conserve soil moisture and nutrients, which in turn leads to better yields.
“The farmers have been able to increase their yields, improve their incomes and have essentially become food secure. This has been a great achievement after farmers in this area had been prone to being affected by climate change effects such as droughts, floods and mid-season dry spells every year,” said Mr Mhere.
He added that Chirumanzu farmers had obtained impressive yields, which was a demonstration of the productivity levels that can be achieved through Pfumvudza/Intwasa.
Online Reporter