Small grains bring hope to Mwenezi Sorghum

Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Correspondent
The shift from maize production to drought-resistant crops, will help in mitigating the El Nino-induced drought wreaking havoc in most parts of the country, agriculture experts have said. This comes as Mwenezi District administrator Mrs Rosemary Chingwe said more than 5 000 cattle had died this season due to the prevailing drought. Addressing villagers in Mwenezi under a programme funded by the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners on small grain conservation, Agritex Extension officer Mr Godfrey Tore said the adoption of small grains will alleviate food insecurity in districts prone to drought.

Most of the land in Mwenezi is in natural regions four and five and in a normal year, the district receives poorly distributed patterns, which on average is 350mm per annum.

The small grains production project financed by the Food Secure facility was piloted in October 2015.

The objective of the project is to ensure household food and nutrition security for small holder farmers in marginal areas such as Mwenezi, through capacity building and increased production of small grains.

Small grains such as pearl millet and sorghum are tolerant to low moisture and drought conditions currently being experienced.

“As Agritex, we are promoting the production of small grains, ,but we have been facing some challenges whereby production per hectare is very low.

“We believe that if farmers are exposed to extensive training in small grain production, then the farmers are likely to increase their yields per hectare,” he said.

“The challenges are that the farmers do not have the starting capital to do the production of small grains.

“Under the changing climate conditions, if the farmers can be supported with inputs, they can produce a demo plot also known as a ‘buffer plot’ under climate smart agriculture practices like conservation agriculture through the use of basins, reaper and putting other practices like mulching, inter-cropping.”

Mr Tore said apart from household food security, farmers need to produce for the market and they were shifting towards that, with some of them being organised into associations in order to easily access markets.

WFP has so far assisted 50 lead farmers and 500 ordinary farmers with seed and fertiliser, under the project.

Farmers were exposed to smart agricultural practices through training on production of small grains and conservation agricultural techniques such as conservation farming, reaper time system and the hand hoe basin.

Seed Co agronomy and extension services manager Mr Ivan Craig said apart from the production of drought tolerant crops, they encouraged farmers to use water harvesting techniques that improve the efficiency of the little rains they are receiving.

Leading farmer in Chibada Village Mrs Julia Sithole said the shift from depending on food handouts to growing crops suitable for their area has helped other villagers to fend for themselves as well as send their children to school.

Another beneficiary, Mrs Tendai Chinanga appealed to WFP and its partners to continue assisting with more seed and fertiliser.

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