Farmers discouraged from starting to plant

Judith Phiri, Business Reporter

THE Government has said despite the country having received substantial rains so far, farmers were discouraged from planting unless they have adequate irrigation, as this is not the start of the rainy season.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Professor Obert Jiri said they advise farmers to use these rains to speed up land preparation.

“Many parts of the country have received substantial rains this week. The Meteorological Services Department advises that this is not the start of the rainy season.

“We advise farmers to use these rains to speed up land preparation (holding for Pfumvudza/Intwasa and accelerating tillage for those practicing conventional farming). Farmers are discouraged from planting unless they have adequate irrigation,” he said.

“We expect the weather to clear soon so what farmers may expect is a better assessment of the crop. Unless a farmer has access to drying facilities, no harvesting is advisable until the moisture content is in the acceptable range.”

Meanwhile, at the Ministry’s five-day strategic workshop in Bulawayo on Monday, Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said they have set up localised committees to supervise the accelerated distribution of farm inputs under the Presidential Inputs Scheme and expects the exercise to be concluded by the end of this month to ensure smooth and successful cropping.

He said: “To date we have about 35 000 metric tonnes that have been moved from suppliers in terms of fertilisers, just over 5 000 seeds moved into Grain Marketing Board depots and very shortly we will accelerate the distribution. We have put distribution committees in the local areas, so we think that by 31 October most households would have done their minimum of three (Pfumvudza/Intwasa) plots, which enable them to qualify to access these inputs.”

The Minister said the country was targeting about three million beneficiaries for rural areas and that each one of these must do a minimum of three plots to come up with a minimum of nine million plots.