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In a telephone interview from Harare yesterday, Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said the decision to allocate three days of uninterrupted power supplies to farmers was reached after engaging the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and Agritex.
“We agreed to put farmers into clusters so that we can come up with a programme that will ensure that they get uninterrupted power supply throughout the winter wheat farming season,” said Mr Gwasira.
He urged the farmers to take advantage of the night time between 9pm and early mornings, as there was limited load-shedding during that period.
“We have also made available 50 megawatts for the farmers during the winter cropping season and we have an intention to increase the days of uninterrupted power supply to four days, but this is not yet final,” said Mr Gwasira.
He said farmers that might experience moisture stress in their areas should engage Zesa regional managers to intervene and salvage the situation.
“We are committed to helping the farmers through and through, but we cannot rule out the fact that our equipment both for power generation and distributing electricity is also on the obsolete side,” said Mr Gwasira.
He said they had also put in place teams to work on any emergencies that the farmers would encounter during the winter cropping season.
Turning to the load-shedding schedule for the winter season, Mr Gwasira said they were in the process of refurbishing the
Kariba hydro power station as well as doing touch-ups on Hwange in anticipation of an increase in power consumption.
“We hope to generate enough power for that period, but we need to appreciate the fact that our power generation is being overwhelmed by consumption,” said Mr Gwasira.
He urged members of the public to appreciate the fact that they should pay the outstanding bills in order for the power utility to be able to generate enough power.
Continued power outages continue to be a cause for concern even to industry and businesspeople have blasted Zesa Holdings for failing to provide them with electricity consistently.
The companies and businesspeople have resorted to the use of generators.
The Government in April announced that 26 000 hectares were earmarked for this year’s winter wheat and 75 000 tonnes of the crop expected to be harvested up from 41 000 tonnes produced last season.
Agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made and Finance Minister Tendai Biti recently unveiled a $20 million input scheme for winter wheat planting.
The country requires more than 400 000 tonnes of wheat annually and farmers predict that close to $200 million is required to meet national wheat requirements.
Online Reporter