daniel chigunwe
The Government is putting in place measures to mitigate drought following preliminary weather forecast that the country is expecting normal to below normal rainfall during the 2023/24 planting season.
Last week, the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry predicted that the country likely to receive normal to below normal rainfall with parts of the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces getting below normal rains for the beginning of the 2023/24 planting season.
According to the Ministry, the bulk of Matabeleland North, parts of the Midlands covering Gokwe North and South districts, parts of Matabeleland South province covering Bulilima district will receive below normal to normal rainfall for the sub-season October-November-December.
In an update, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John Basera urged stakeholders to go through the recently released 2023/24 seasonal outlook report which is now in the public domain.
“As we reflect long and hard on this, we are expected to come up with appropriate early actions, early responses through customised agriculture extension messaging and implementing robust mitigatory measures,” said Dr Basera.
He said the reflections should culminate in the key touch points dubbed Adaptation, Mitigation, Action (AMA). Dr Basera urged stakeholders to move with speed and deploy strategies such as accelerated irrigation rehabilitation, religious adoption of Pfumvudza/Intwasa tenets, promoting on-farm feed formulations with climate smart fodder options and improving season preparedness through early inputs distribution informed by agro-ecological potential matching, with a bias towards growing of traditional/ small grains is required.
He also called for a healthy animal or crop that he said stands a ‘bad season’ better, hence adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) as well as increasing vigilance in protecting veld, as the country gears for the 2023/24 season. The period October to March is the main rainfall season over most parts of the country. — New Ziana.
Online Reporter