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Sharon Shayanewako
THE Government has encouraged farmers to complete Pfumvudza/Intwasa preparations before inputs distribution to ensure they will be concentrating on planting as soon as they get inputs.
Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme is expected to anchor the upcoming summer cropping season through supporting three million households and 500 000 urban farmers.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development chief director responsible for Agriculture Advisory Services, Professor Obert Jiri said:
“By now, farmers should have done all their preparations for Pfumvudza so that when they get their inputs, they will be only concentrating on planting.
“The movement of Pfumvudza/Intwasa inputs to GMB depots in all the districts has been up-scaled and any time soon the distribution to farmers will commence. Our aim is to make sure farmers receive inputs before the rains fall to ensure they plant early with the first effective rains,” he said.
Prof Jiri urged farmers to obey the basic tenets of Pfumvudza such as minimum soil disturbance or holing out and mulching before they receive their inputs.
Amid the distribution of Pfumvudza Inputs that just got underway, Zimbabwe Commercial Framers Union (ZCFU) president Dr Shadreck Makombe has appealed to farmers to use the inputs effectively.
“The distribution of inputs means whatever farmers are given should be put to good use or the intended use. Most farmers have a tendency of selling Governmental inputs, thereby remaining with little or no inputs at all to use in their fields. This misuse of inputs gives birth to food shortages at household level, yet the Government is making efforts to reduce the challenge of food shortages. Farmers should be grateful to the efforts, which the authorities are making.
“The Government is chipping in to lessen the plight of most farmers who do not have the means of production. Whatever the Government is going to give us, let us put it in the ground. It is for our benefit as a nation because we want to ensure food self-sufficiency and stop imports. By using inputs effectively, we might even realise surplus for sale, which will generate revenue for us,” explained Dr Makombe.
The Pfumvudza/Itwasa programme is set to benefit the small-scale, A1, communal, old resettlement and urban farmers in the production of cereal, oilseeds and legumes.
The programme will support five Pfumvudza plots- each measuring 39m by 16m per household with agro-ecological region specific crop input packages for maize, sorghum, pearl millet, soya beans, sunflower, groundnuts, vegetables and African peas.
The package will also include water retention enhancers, herbicides package for three plots and a fall-armyworm control package.
Online Reporter