LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Government will embark on a countrywide crop and livestock assessment exercise beginning end of this month to evaluate the quantities of crops and livestock in the country.
The assessment also seeks to establish disease prevalence, state of pastures and water supply.
Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement deputy minister Vangelis Haritatos, said the first livestock and crop assessment results will provide an early warning to decision makers on the possible outcome of the present cropping season.
He also disclosed that the second assessment will be undertaken end of March.
“The first crop and livestock assessment will begin at the end of January when most field crops which include maize, soyabeans, cotton, groundnuts and small grains would have been planted and would have shown its potential,” Haritatos told Business Times.
For sugar beans and sweet potatoes, Haritatos said farmers would continue planting beyond January.
The assessment, he said, identifies areas of intervention by government as they relate to saving the season’s crop and makes recommendations and identifies interventions for the livestock sector.
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director, Paul Zakariya, said under the assessment, officials from the Agriculture ministry, Agritex officers, and personnel from various farmers’ organisations will collect data from fields to come up with estimates as to where the country stands in terms of potential output.
He said that information gathered in the first assessment will help government and farmers come up with close to accurate yield and production estimates.
In his 2021 National Budget, Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube estimated the grain yield to be more than the national requirement of two million metric tonnes, meaning Zimbabwe will import less maize this year. fffff
