Maravi

(HERALD) Over 1 000 tractors expected next year

Over 1 000 tractors expected next year
Bulawayo Bureau

MORE than 1 000 tractors are expected in the country next year as the Government moves in to boost provision of farm implements under the farm mechanisation programme, an official has said. The Secretary for Agricultural Engineer-ing, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Dr Shadreck Mlambo, said in anticipation of the tractors his ministry had targeted to train 1 000 individuals to handle the machinery.
The ministry came up with a policy of training people who benefit from the programme on how to handle the machinery to safeguard the equipment.

More than 1 400 beneficiaries have already been trained this year under the mechanisation programme.

"Currently, 1 440 beneficiaries have been trained under the Government Mechani-sation Programme. With an estimated 1 000 tractors coming into the country next year, the target for 2008 training is set at a minimum of 1 000 beneficiaries," he said.

Although Dr Mlambo did not reveal where the Government was going to buy the tractors, most of them have come from China while some are assembled locally.

Dr Mlambo said the training programme focused on ensuring that the machinery was used efficiently.

"Training and extension in agricultural engineering, mechanisation and irrigation focuses mainly on provision of skills on machinery operations, maintenance, setting and management to the farming community.

This will ensure that farmers are capacitated to fully utilise mechanisation to increase productivity on farms and ensure that machinery service life is prolonged at the same time reducing operational costs," he said.

The Government this year embarked on the farm mechanisation programme that has seen many farmers receiving farm machinery as the nation puts in place strategies to boost agriculture productivity.

The programme has now been divided into 10 phases stretching until 2010. The first two phases were launched in June and October this year and were hailed by many farmers and stakeholders across the political divide.

"The ministry has the objective of mechanising farms to the extent that by 2010 each and every A2 farmer will have received a tractor and an implement."

Apart from the tractors, Dr Mlambo said his ministry would also intensify the provision of animal-drawn implements so as to address issues of productivity in A1 and communal areas.

He said in 2008, the ministry would be moving into new areas, particularly rehabilitation of tobacco barns, greenhouses and dairy parlours.

"This will ensure that the agricultural industry will have a sound footing."

Labels: TRACTORISATION, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 7:44 AM