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Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
PRESIDENT Mugabe has attributed perennial drought and persistent hunger that has hit the country, particularly the southern region, since the turn of the new millennium to the country’s failure to employ mitigating strategies such as water harvesting through the construction of dams.
Addressing thousands of people gathered at Chinyika Ranch in Chirumhanzu Zibagwe Constituency to witness a ground breaking technology, Exothermic (Alluminathemic) demonstration by Africa Chrome fields, President Mugabe said the country was still lagging behind in terms water harvesting and there was a need for Government to employ such strategies as a partial fulfillment of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) blueprint.
Under the Food Security and Nutrition Cluster in Zim Asset, the country seeks to create a self-sufficient and food surplus economy and see Zimbabwe re-emerge as the bread basket of Southern Africa.
President Mugabe said persistent drought was becoming a cause for concern and there was need for the country to be proactive and start devising strategies to curb hunger.
“In other countries they have ways of harvesting and conserving water so that when they experience dry spells they irrigate their crops so that they won’t be affected. We are still lagging behind on that. We need to start constructing more dams so that we harvest water and be able to irrigate during the dry spell so that when the rains come they will find our crops in good condition.
“We want to ensure food security at household level and also start looking at having irrigation for smallholder farmers so that we avert hunger,” he said.
President Mugabe conceded that drought was looming after crops, particularly maize, were greatly affected by the dry spell that the country experienced during the 2014-2015 summer cropping season.
“We have been looking around and we saw that most crops have been affected by the dry spell. The maize crop has been greatly affected and with the look of things people might not harvest what they were expecting.
“Isu tagara hatisi nyope zvedu pakurima asi chete mvura haisikuuya nenzira yayaimbouya nayo kare. Zvino tinoda kuve nenzira dzekuti titore mvura iya inonaya tiichengetedze kuitira paya paisingauyi todiridzira (we are receiving poor rains and we need to start harvesting water),” he said.
According to the crop assessment conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, the southern part of the country was likely to experience drought due to the dry spell.
Most crops in Midlands, Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South were now a write-off.
President Mugabe also lamented fly-by-night church leaders who were duping and swindling desperate citizens seeking salvation and deliverance.
He said people should be wary of some Pentecostal church leaders who were using church to steal from people
“Kune vamwe vanoti hunzai three dorazi woisa kuma kuva ichauya yakawanda. (some church leaders ask people to plough the seed of prosperity by giving money so that it multiplies) Some Pentecostal church leaders who claim they can heal some of the chronic diseases and those that do not have a cure. Mova chenjerera vanhu vakadaro (be wary of such people). We heard one of them was now giving people miracle money and we warned him against that because it was illegal,” he said.
Online Reporter