Ministry assesses seven districts

Samuel Kadungure Senior Farming Reporter
THE Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development is conducting field visits in the seven districts of Manicaland with the aim of assessing crop and livestock situation on the ground. The programme is led by Agritex and the livestock department, who will be the major providers of data that forms the basis for this assessment, while the financial, technical and logistical support will be from development partners.

The greater part of Manicaland was this season characterised by limited water sources, scarce and unreliable rainfall that was concentrated in December 2014 with the remaining period tending to be relatively or absolutely dry.

At most, these areas receive annual rainfall of 500m and high temperatures during the rainy season caused much of this rainfall to be lost through evaporation.
Besides being water deficient, dry lands of Manicaland — which include Buhera, Mutare, Chimanimani, the larger parts of Chipinge, Nyanga, Mutasa and Makoni districts — are synonymous with exceptionally high summer day temperatures, low humidity, high run-off and soil erosion.

Agritex officer for Manicaland Mr Godfrey Mamhare said they should be through with the field visits on February 28.
“We are basically looking at the condition of crops and livestock. We are looking at hectarage, rainfall situation, water situation and the general state of the crop, condition of all species of livestock, veld conditions and disease outbreak,” said Mr Mamhare.

Mr Mamhare said the assessment would be targeting all crops and animal species.
Crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, soya beans, tobacco, cotton, groundnuts, roundnuts, sunflower, sweet potatoes, potatoes, sugar beans and macademia are grown in Manicaland for both consumption and commercial purposes.

Farmers also keep cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, birds and donkeys.
Mr Mamhare said the taskforce would engage in comprehensive inquires in sampled areas by holding round-table discussions and group interviews with traditional leaders, farmers and resident extension officers.

A survey by The Manica Post in parts of the province showed that rains have been late and irregular in large parts and at some point excessive to the extent of submerging the crop.

The 2014/15 summer production is likely to be affected because of the prolonged dry spells at various periods during this season.
However, in some districts the affected crop was recovering following slight rains received this week.

Manicaland farmers planted very late because of delayed rains and some planted up to three times because of poor germination due to inadequate soil moisture.
The effect of the dry season is tremendous in parts of the province that lie especially on the rain shadow but will vary depending on the time taken before the rains resumed. These occurrences affected seed germination and application of fertilisers.

Due to moisture stress, fertiliser could not be effective and in some cases crops wilted. Farmers could also not apply fertilisers, especially top-dressing on time due to lack of moisture. Though the rains sporadically resumed mid-February, the early planted crop tusselled while not fully grown, a situation that affected cobbing and grain filling, in case of maize.

In other areas the tusselling crop was affected by hailstorm.
Smallholder farming sectors such as communal areas, old resettlement, A1 and small-scale commercial areas contribute more than 90 percent of the area planted to maize with communal sector contributing about 64 percent.
The bulk of the maize crop is in late vegetative to early mature stages.

Despite the critical shortages of fertilisers the crop condition was generally fair to good in most parts of the province.
Livestock is in a fair to good body condition across all species.
However, there are high incidences of tick-borne diseases due to erratic dipping.
Anthrax disease outbreaks were reported in some parts of the province, especially in Buhera.

Severe depletion of livestock has been reported in most parts of the province as households disposed livestock for grain due to food insecurity.
In Manicaland, animal draft power accounts for at least 70 percent of the planted area, tractor power accounts for 5 percent while hand tillage ranges from 15 percent.
Conservation farming (minimum tillage) was being practised in communal areas in Mutasa, Buhera, Mutare and Chimanimani.