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Deputy Minister Davis Marapira

Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
Government will this summer cropping season, reduce the beneficiaries of the agricultural input support scheme to allow for more resources to be channelled towards the command agriculture scheme.

Speaking in an interview, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira said the main focus was now on strategic farmers and productive farms to maximise production and be able to avert hunger that has been bedevilling the country due to the El Nino-induced drought.

“This year, fewer people are going to benefit from the input support scheme that mainly targeted communal and smallholder farmers. Not that we are neglecting them, but we are shifting the attention to command agriculture. That is where the Government priority is at the moment,” he said.

He said the country is also expecting above average rains in the forthcoming summer cropping season, likely to start in October.

Although the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) is expected to release the three-month weather forecast this week, Deputy Minister Marapira said the country was expecting above average rainfall starting October. He urged farmers to acquire their inputs and make land preparations on time to ensure timeous cultivation.

“This cropping season, we are expecting better rains that are above average according to our forecast. I do not have the statistics to determine the quantities and patterns, but the rains are beginning in October like they have always done in the previous years before the climatic changes.

“We are urging farmers to start preparing early so that we maximise production and ensure food security,” he said.

MSD’s head of public weather services, Mr Tich Zinyemba, said they would release the forecast for the summer cropping season this week.

“We are hoping that by Monday, we will have the forecast. I have not looked at it myself and analysed it because I have not been in the office this week (last week), but the deputy Minister might be correct if he said so. We will release the forecast on Monday (today),” he said.

Meanwhile, Zvishavane-Ngezi Member of Parliament, Cde John Holder, said the MSD and the Ministry of Agriculture should embrace new technologies of forecasting rains that enable them to foretell the rainfall patterns 12 months ahead instead of their three months intervals.

“Last year, I was given a forecast in January by an expert from Germany, informing me that there was going to be drought in Zimbabwe. I supplied that information to the Ministry of Agriculture, but they did not take heed. This is because our methods of weather forecasting are a bit behind. They should embrace other sophisticated and modern ways of forecasting to enable Government to be proactive in case of drought,” he said.