adminTawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
Government has hailed Lowveld sugar cane producer Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe for partnering it in a winter maize production programme that will see more than 1 000 tonnes being produced this year.
The maize to be produced under the initiative was expected to enhance food security in the province, which had been facing recurrent food shortages owing to droughts.
Tongaat partnered Government to grow winter maize under the Command Agriculture programme to cushion the province in the event of a drought in the current farming season.
Addressing guests during a tour of 317 hectares, to be put under winter maize at Tongaat cane estates in Chiredzi, on Monday, Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Senator Josaya Hungwe said the programme deserved to be expanded to cover other crops.
Sen Hungwe, who is also the Zanu-PF secretary for production and labour in the Politburo, said there was need to consider production of soya beans and wheat.
“As a province we must always try to adapt to climate change, which continues to affect us on a daily basis,” he said. “We want a research to be done to see whether it is feasible to grow soya beans and wheat here in the Lowveld.
“This winter maize project started after the 1992 drought and we had to engage Tongaat to help us by experimenting whether it was possible to grow winter maize on their cane plots and the initiative was a resounding success though many had concluded that it was impossible to grow winter maize here in Chiredzi.”
Sen Hungwe said several agricultural research stations in the Lowveld were supposed to up their game and identify crops, which can be grown in the arid area to boost Masvingo’s food security through irrigation.
He said Masvingo was home to many underutilised dams that could be exploited to produce food and cash crops under irrigation in the Lowveld.
Sen Hungwe said recurrent food shortages should be a thing of the past in the province which has the highest dam density in Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter