adminElita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
Stakeholders in the agricultural industry want farmers to be trained in the latest post-harvest handling techniques to reduce losses.
This follows a realisation that farmers, especially in the horticultural sector, were incurring huge losses as they did not have knowledge on preservation. Speaking at a weather forecast workshop last week, Knowledge Transfer Centre chief executive, Mr Charles Dhewa, expressed concern that some farmers ended up suffering losses as their perishable produce went bad before it reached the markets.
Mr Dhewa said horticultural farmers in Domboshava, Murewa and Mutoko were failing to make meaningful profits from their produce as they did not have mechanisms to preserve the commodities and sell later when the markets were viable.
“Last season the country received high rainfall and this resulted in an increase in agricultural produce, but the bulk of the horticultural produce was affected by the rains, especially during marketing.
“There are times when local markets are flooded with tomatoes and farmers end up throwing away their produce yet there are times when the produce is scarce on the market,” he said.
Online Reporter