Maravi

(HERALD) Lack of funds hampers land preps

COMMENT - Zero-tillage can work, however it has to be built up over time, as it is essentially an organic growing method, that uses cover crops and sowing in late standing crops a few weeks before harvest. But it can be done, and it is very low cost. Check out The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, as well as The Natural Way Of Farming: The theory and practice of green philosophy, by the same author.

Lack of funds hampers land preps
Agriculture Reporter

Land preparations for the 2009/10 summer cropping season have started on a slow note in different parts of the country with scores of farmers failing to mobilise money to finance the operations.

A number of farmers are not adequately prepared for this season as they do not have hard currency required to buy fuel for land preparation.

The shift from the use of local to foreign currency affected many farmers mainly those who had poor harvests last season, while some who managed to produce and sell grain are yet to get their money from the Grain Marketing Board.

This has resulted in most farmers, mainly small-scale ones, turning to zero tillage as those with tractors are charging exorbitant rates beyond their reach.

The situation is worse in some communal areas where farmers had sold livestock last year to buy food and inputs and no longer have animals for draught power.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wilson Nyabonda last week said availability of tractors was still a big challenge to many farmers in different parts of the country, adding that there was huge demand for the machinery.

"There is need to rehabilitate the existing ones. However, the District Development Fund should charge affordable rates to make farming viable," said Mr Nyabonda.

Manicaland acting provincial Agritex officer Mr Joseph Mukajami said the unavailability of long-term loans had affected most farmers using the conventional method of land preparations.

"The inaccessibility of loans is affecting land preparations as some farmers do not have funds to buy diesel and hire tractors. The DDF is charging US$45 and 30 litres of fuel to plough a hectare," he said.

Land preparations for farmers using conservation farming however, were underway in Manicaland province.

Conservation agriculture is when farmers do not use ox or tractor drawn ploughs to prepare land, but just make some basins where to plant the seeds using hoes or a ripper to make lines were seeds are planted.

However, it turned out that many non-governmental organisations were only giving inputs to villagers who were using some hoes to make basins to plant the seeds.

"Majority of growers using conservation farming have already done their land preparations. More than 19 000 farmers (10 000 in Mutare and 9 000 in Mutasa) in this province are set to benefit from a German Technical Co-operation project which is promoting the use of minimum tillage through conservation agriculture," Mr Mukajami said.

"Farmers using conservation agriculture are almost through with their land preparations. The land preparations include establishment of planting basins (holes). A total of 9 500 hectares in Manicaland have been committed to conservation agriculture," said Mr Mukajami.

Mr Mukajami said distribution of inputs under conservation agriculture project was underway.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union director Mr Paul Zakariya, on Thursday said a number of farmers were working hard to ensure that they finish land preparations before the rains.

"Conservation agriculture is now what we are encouraging farmers to do and we have been doing so since winter. A number of farmers using conservation agriculture started their land preparations in winter.

"The system is however labour intensive and requires the use of chemicals to destroy weeds. So we have not gone past the worst," said Mr Zakariya.

Most of the farmers in the communal areas are adopting conservation agriculture to get inputs especially from NGOs promoting the way of farming.

Mr Nyabonda advised the farmers to seek advice from Agritex officers to be able to know the correct crop to plant, variety and time of planting.

Labels: AGRICULTURE

posted by MrK @ 6:54 PM