adminMichael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent
Tobacco farmers who flout stipulated rules and regulations that govern the production of the crop risk losing their farms, Midlands provincial crops and livestock officer Mrs Madeline Magwenzi has said.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a Midlands Province tobacco awareness campaign launch in Kwekwe yesterday, Mrs Magwenzi said her department had noted with concern that most farmers were not following the proper procedures, especially stumping, burning of stock and planting dates, putting other crops at risk of contaminating diseases.
She said the recklessness by the farmers was exposing most crops in the province to Potato Virus Y (PVY) virus which is associated with tobacco stumps that would have been left in the fields after harvesting of the plant.
Mrs Magwenzi said the spot fine of $1 000 per hectare imposed on defaulting farmers was not deterrent enough, hence Government had resorted to taking farms from the unruly farmers.
“The spot fines are not helping matters as the farmers are continuing to be reckless,” she said. “We are warning farmers to abide by the law or risk losing their farms.
“In the case that a farmer has leased a piece of land, they will still lose their farm if their tenant is caught on the wrong side of the law. We are trying to promote the correct way of doing things given that we have a number of new tobacco farmers across the province.
“As Midlands Province, we have seen it fit to work hand in hand with stakeholders like Plant Protection. We are going around the province conducting awareness campaign on legislation on tobacco stock removal, stumping and burning of stock. We are targeting to train our Agritex extension workers across the province who will in turn train farmers and inform them of the dangers.” Mrs Magwenzi said the campaign was also meant to improve the quality of the crop in terms of grade and ensure that it fetched more money from the market.
Midlands provincial agronomist Mr Innocent Dzuke said PVY virus was dangerous in that it also affected other crops besides tobacco.
“If the tendency continues unabated, we might end up with a number of crop diseases in the province,” he said. “PVY is caused by the bucks and stumps of tobacco that are left in fields after harvesting. But the most dangerous part is that it spreads to other crops like tomatoes, potatoes or any other crop and it’s not easy to control.”
Mr Dzuke said besides burning of stock, farmers should also practice crop rotation.
“Besides failure by farmers to completely destroy stock, we find that they are not rotating their crops,” he said. “We also noticed that some are not following planting dates that are set down. Early planting should be done by September 1 and late planting by December 31.”
Mr Dzuke said Kwekwe and Mvuma were the most affected areas, hence the launch of the programmes in the areas before the campaign was taken to other parts of the province, including Gweru, Shurugwi, and Gokwe.
Online Reporter