Maravi

(HERALD ZW) Farmers in the dark

Farmers in the dark
Monday, 22 October 2012 07:03
Senior Agriculture Reporter

MOST farmers have not yet received the interpreted versions of the 2012/13 weather forecast amid reports that Agritex officers are inca­pacitated to reach out to them. The Meteorological Department recently forecast that Zimbabwe would have a normal to below normal rainy season. The forecast has a lot of technical terms that makes it crucial for Agritex to convert it before issuing it to farmers.

Agritex has since received the fore­cast for conversion to allow farmers to use the information in their prepara­tions. Farmers make use of the weather information in making important decisions such as choosing crop varieties and deciding on the time to start planting.

A senior Agritex official Mrs Mor­leen Mupandawana last week told farmers attending a meeting in Harare that her department was failing to effectively reach out to them because of transport challenges.
“We have to rely on partners to do most of our tasks because we do not have the means to travel to all the farming areas,” Mrs Mupandawana said.

“The problem is worsened by the fact that the majority of our extension staff is inexperienced and is still learn­ing to convert weather forecasts to extension messages. We also need a lot of resources for the training of staff in this regard.”

Mrs Mupandawana said her depart­ment’s shortcomings created a gap in farmers’ knowledge of the climatic developments taking place in their different agro-ecological regions.

Labels: METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, RAINFALL

posted by MrK @ 4:00 PM