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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight A DROUGHT is known to pose serious challenges for populations whose livelihoods depend principally on agriculture given that it causes water stress, crop failure and or reduced yields. The devastating effects of a drought do not end with crops, but extend to ravishing other natural resources as well as livestock, something that […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight TOMORROW, Zimbabweans will once again evoke memories of the extraordinary 18th day of April in 1980 when the country got its independence. It will be a day punctuated by revelries of various measures, as the country pays homage and celebrates the emancipation from the shackles of colonialism. Enough respect to those men […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight IF ever there was a perfect time to empower women farmers, that time is now! This is so because agriculture has transformed from just being a vehicle to achieving food security to becoming a serious business enterprise that deserves an equally solemn investment in labour as well as technical knowledge. Suffice it […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight Government has since revealed that more than 70 percent of the country’s soils are acidic and need to be limed to bring them to the right pH levels. Technically, this meant the soils had a pH value of less than 5,5 for most of the year. Soil pH or soil reaction is […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight THE origins of the proverb — “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” may not be traceable but its message is loud and clear. It is always more sustainable to capacitate people to take […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight UNTIL recently, the idea of the communal farmer being considered a businessperson seems to have been eluding the public scrutiny. Not once in my journalism profession stretching over two decades do I recall having seen a special on the subject, or even a segment on the evening news about the communal farmer […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight IT is fast becoming that cyclical nightmare, which every cattle farmer wants to quickly jerk out of and never drift back into again. That is January disease or Theileriosis. In recent years the country has made significant strides in the fight to contain the disease after nearly a million cattle deaths, severely […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight RECENTLY, the Government announced plans to avail more inputs for farmers intending to expand their hectarages under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme. Essentially, the move was inspired by the desire to ensure all citizens have enough food and even surplus to sell and generate some income. This makes a lot of sense given that […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight IT is that time of the year again when the goings-on at the country’s largest fresh produce market — Mbare Musika become so topical that they are discussed to the point of saturation. Despite this pervasive interest from stakeholders from near and far, it seems the subject of the highly animated discussion […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight Last week, the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) convened a press conference in Harare to update the media on the progress made so far in distributing cotton inputs for the 2023/24 cropping season. The presser came on the backdrop of growing apprehension among stakeholders in the cotton industry following Government’s recent decision to […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight I have never been very good with figures at school or even outside. And neither have I been gifted with the ability to comprehend economics as a subject, but I can pick it when something happens in a process that is supposed to flow smoothly but somehow, does so incongruously. The current […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight MANY a times, farmers are faced with situations they easily interpret as sounding the death knell to their farming careers. Surprisingly, they have in all cases proved to be more immortal than the proverbial cat with nine lives. They have always lived to tell the story and to start a fresh season. […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight TODAY marks 11 days after the 2023 fire season officially got underway on July 1. Traditionally, it would end on October 30, but this has since been pushed to November 30 following the realisation that more fire incidences were still being recorded even beyond this cut-off day. The Environment, Climate, Tourism and […]
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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight IT seems our farmers have in recent seasons perfected the art of meeting and surpassing set national targets. And they are doing so with the aplomb and affluence that hints at the possibility of even greater things to come if they continue accessing and enjoying the current support and enabling environment. Today, […]