The ManicaPost
AGRICULTURE is the mainstay of the country’s economy and the month of October is key to any serious farmer.This is the time to wind up land preparations and plant the next crop when rains fall adequately to do likewise.
Thorough preparation, that is the right tillage and sourcing the right inputs in appropriate quantities – is also critical as it determines the quality of harvest the farmer will eventually get at the end of the season.
Farmers should work on the soil using the right methods because this is the only way the soil’s capacity to retain moisture and allow air circulation both key conditions for plant germination and growth can be improved.
While preparations rest on the farmers’ financial capacity, it is our view that genuine farmers who have a responsibility to produce enough to feed the nation and ensure national food security have already prepared their plots and they are now patiently waiting for the precious rains to pounce.
We believe that the farmers should have a sense of patriotism because the nation is pinning its hopes on how they will face this promising farming season.
They need to till the land with an attitude that tells them that they are serving the nation besides doing it for profit.
We cannot have farmers who cut corners every season.
Zimbabwe is experiencing serious food shortages owing to a severe dry season largely blamed on the El Nino effect, but, to some extent, farmers are also to blame for their lack of preparedness.
Over the past decade, yields of main food crops like maize have been on the decline, not primarily because of poor rains but the care-free approach that was exhibited by some of our farmers who were given land during the Land Reform Programme.
A qualitative understanding of farming trends and agricultural intensification required so that our farmers target technology options and intervention measures.
Sustainable crop production intensification should be built on technical principles of minimum soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover, species diversification, use of high-yielding adapted varieties from good seed, integrated pest management, plant nutrition based on healthy soils and efficient water management.
Communal farmers constitute the bulk of maize farmers in Zimbabwe.
This is despite the fact that they lack tillage and irrigation muscle.
Being a key component in the nation’s drive to ensure both household and national food security, it is advisable for those in drier parts or in the rain shadow to take up conservation agriculture (CA) in order to beat hunger.
CA, which involves minimum soil disturbance, has been widely adopted in both developed and developing countries with encouraging success and research shows that it is now being practised on about 117 million hectares worldwide.
This means that CA is being practised on about eight percent of total crop land in the world, and its adoption is increasing in Africa, Central Asia and China.
The Zimbabwean communal farmers should not be left behind in this growing trend.
However, CA on its own does not guarantee success.
These communal and small scale farmers still need to be supported with additional management practices for increased food production.
They need to be constantly taught to use seed which is optimised for their regions, high-yielding varieties with resistance to biotic stresses and improved nutritional quality.
Rotation is also key since crop nutrition is linked to healthy soils and judicious use of organic or inorganic fertiliser.
Farmers should by now be aware of their chemical requirement and the stocks should be in their chemical warehouses for effective management of pests, diseases and weeds.
The pesticides should be low risk ones.
