Editorial Comment: Food deficit: Get farmers to grow crops suitable for their areas

regions in selecting the right crops to grow and that rain-fed agriculture has ceased to be sustainable.
There is need to not only educate farmers to grow crops that suit their agro-ecological regions but to ensure they adhere to the requirements of their areas in terms of the soil types.
We have seen farmers in regions Four and Five where people can never go wrong growing small grains like sorghum and rapoko and practising cattle ranching, concentrating on maize production, which even with high quantities of fertiliser, would never do well.
We have observed that much of the problems associated with food deficit hinge on farmers growing the wrong crops.
If the region is good for cattle, we would obviously hope to see farmers going into cattle ranching and if it is good for small grains, then naturally this is what farmers should grow.
There seems to be an obsession with growing maize everywhere regardless of the suitability of the region.
There are certain farms even in Natural Region Two that have sandy soils suitable for tobacco but you still have farmers unsuccessfully growing maize against the advice of agronomists.   
Tobacco barns lie unused at most farms as farmers go into maize production instead of tobacco yet it is clear they can never achieve any meaningful yield given that the soils do not promote the growing of maize.
Every year, farmers in parts of Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland grow maize, which they know fully well will not do well owing to the poor soils and low rainfall.
It would indeed do them a lot of good to concentrate on small grains for which they would be assured of a harvest.
Let farmers grow crops that do well in their areas and we believe every serious farmer should seek the advice of agronomists in ascertaining soil type, including the pH levels.
It is our fervent belief that once farmers do this, the problem of food deficits can easily be contained and that not much of the country’s budget would go towards the grain loan scheme but to other pressing requirements.
Surprisingly, the Government always talks of the importance of irrigation given the erratic rainfall patterns we have experienced in recent times.
Yet there is nothing on the ground to buttress the pronouncements.
Instead, farmers every year mourn of poor harvests caused largely by low rainfall when we know that the solution lies in irrigation development.
There is no denying the fact that irrigation agriculture now is the future.
If the areas that had crops wiped off by the dry spell were under irrigation, they would have easily been salvaged and there would not have been any need for the grain loan scheme.
The rains are becoming more and more unpredictable and those with irrigation always stand the chance of getting a good harvest.
We want to urge the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development to start walking the talk in the rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure.
Instead of spending a lot of money on the grain loan scheme, the Government would do well sorting out irrigation in the full knowledge that that is the kind of empowerment that farmers want.
Dishing out handouts is a very short-term solution that will continue to burden the Government.
Quite substantial amounts of money could be saved and invested elsewhere if farmers are connected to irrigation.
However, in the absence of full irrigation, we believe that Government should focus more on drought relief than the grain loan scheme, as the affected people will not be able to repay the loans.
We must not forget that the majority of the people borrowing the grain are either from low rainfall regions and cannot produce enough to feed their families, let alone sell to the Grain Marketing Board.
A mechanism needs to be found to ensure that only people in areas with a high probability of a good harvest access the grain on loan while the others get drought relief or food for work schemes.