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Minister Made

Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
Farmers should sell their unproductive livestock as grazing areas have become scarce due to drought conditions prevailing in most parts of the country, a Cabinet minister has said. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said his ministry was in discussion with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to look at ways of sustaining the national herd and also to ensure restocking after the drought.

He said livestock situation was dire in the southern parts of the country. “Pastures are not good due to drought and veld fires. What is critical now is that farmers should choose animals that are not productive and select the ones they want to keep. It is better to sell unproductive animals than watch them die.

“It will be easier to re-stock than leaving animals to succumb to drought. Farmers can reduce the herd of the livestock and remain with a manageable size. This is the strategy we are taking to save the animals and work on restocking as conditions improve,” he said

Dr Made said the Ministry would carry out wide consultations with farmers to take an approach of saving livestock. As the rains come, we expect pastures to improve and farmers can make their judgments, but in areas where rainfall is low, farmers should de-stock.

On the 2015/16 farming season, the Minister said some substantive rainfall has come and urged farmers to continue planting. “Farmers should plant. Some farmers are re-planting. There are concerns from a number of farmers who had spent their resources planting and the crop was affected by the dry conditions. The general outcry is that they do not have seed to replant.

“We still have some seed in stock but some A2 and smallholder farmers are complaining that they do not have money to buy seed. We are encouraging them to try their best to replant while the moisture is still available,” he said.

Dr Made urged all institutions dealing with input delivery to work hard and assist farmers. He urged the GMB to speed up the release of inputs. Meanwhile, farmers have intensified their operations due to the recent rains being experienced in most parts of the country.

Some farmers took advantage of the available moisture and wet conditions to carry out land preparations while others who had planted with the November rains were replanting.

Other farmers were planting and a few were weeding and applying fertilisers. The farmers said although the experts had predicted normal to below normal rainfall, they were continuing with farm operations and were hopeful to get meaningful harvests at the end of the season.

Ms Emily Gukuta of Sunningdale said this season was different from other seasons. “I planted with the first rains and some of the plants were affected by the dry and hot weather. I am filling the gaps and I trust that I will get something at the end of the season,” she said.

Waterfalls farmer, Mr Simbarashe Tirivangani said he staggered the planting dates to spread the risk. “This season I did not plant on the same day. I planted some areas with the first rains and now I am preparing land so that I can plant. It is better to have different stages so that if the other batch fails I will still have a harvest.

“Farmers have faith. We always plant every season even if experts predict a drought and we have faith that we will harvest,” he said. Another farmer in Retreat, Mr Talent Guwa said he planted mid November and the maize crop was not affected by the rains because he had deep ploughed.

“Deep ploughing conserves moisture so even if the rains stop it will take long for the crop to suffer from moisture stress,” he said. Mr Guwa said the 2015/16 summer cropping season was tricky and farmers needed to be careful when undertaking operations such as weeding and fertiliser application.

The MSD said season was expected to be shorter than normal thereby already limiting the growing season.