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Mellisa Mutasa Herald Reporter
Farmers’ hopes of salvaging a good harvest are fast disappearing, despite the rains that have been falling throughout the country this week, as most of the crops are still under severe moisture stress. Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) executive director Mr Paul Zakaria told The Herald that the rains had not changed the crop situation in most parts of the country.

“This week’s rains have not changed the dire crop situation that farmers are experiencing. Approximately 30 percent of the crops in the country are a write-off as the rains came a bit late. Yields are now much lower than what we anticipated. Farmers have been left in a desperate situation because most crops are now stressed out. Even if it rains now, we don’t expect much recovery from some of the crops,” he said.

The situation, said Mr Zakaria, was different for those farmers who irrigated their crops. He said Government should co-operate with other stakeholders and craft policies that will ensure enhanced planning towards irrigation.

“The Government should co-operate with other stakeholders and come up with agricultural projects such as irrigation schemes that contribute to the development of the farming industry,” he said. “Every farmer should have the privilege to benefit from those projects.”

ZFU confirmed that at most farms, the tobacco crop was relatively better than maize. Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said the rains were beneficial to crops planted late.

“The current crop situation is quite bad as we have faced challenges of losing crops everyday mostly in Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South, Midlands, Mashonaland East and Masvingo,” he said.

“However, we might not recover all dire crops from the rains that we received this week and those we are to receive, but farmers with young crops that were planted in December and those that are in their early stages will benefit from these rains. The rains are good for the young crops that were planted late, and if it keeps raining, we expect better yields from these young plants.”