Zim in drought scare

…Farmers sell Command inputs …Experts call for short season varieties

TINASHE MAKICHI / LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

 

Zimbabwe is facing severe to exceptional drought-like conditions with experts this week directing farmers to go for short season varieties and salvage the summer cropping season, Business Times can report.

This comes at a time when some early planted crops are now wilting owing to moisture stress.

Others have not even germinated due to excessive heat, which is removing moisture from both the soil  and the crop.

The situation is so dire that farmers have been advised to switch  to short term seed varieties.

Such is the panic among farmers that some are now selling  inputs obtained through the Command Agriculture and the Presidential Input Scheme, fearing crop failure due to the unpredictable rainfall patterns.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, John Basera told Business Times  that the situation was  extremely bad and farmers should now switch to medium to short term seed varieties.

“…..We  urge farmers to switch to medium or short term maturity varieties considering the current unpredictable rainfall patterns,” Basera said.

The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Shadreck Makombe said long season varieties would not be sustained due to the unpredictable season.

“If a farmer chooses to plant long term variety at this juncture when he or she doesn’t have irrigation, we have a big possibility of serious drought as the variety will mature in around April when the rainy season has ended,” Makombe said.

He added: “Yes it’s true that farmers should plant short season varieties to salvage the season.  What we have to do is to plant a big hectarage of the short season varieties to cover for the lost time and dried out plants.

“Now that we have prolonged dry spells, there is a need to invest heavily on irrigation and water harvesting.”

The Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary general Paul Zakariya raised fears of crop failure saying farmers now need to be smart in choosing seed varieties taking into consideration the issue of climate change.

“It is advisable that those who can afford , should go for short to medium term varieties now unless if you have irrigation then you can do long term varieties,” Zakariya said.

“With the issue of climate change farmers need to be smarter in choosing varieties and research should also kick in, in coming up with varieties that are drought resistant. We need to invest in irrigation at the farm level as well as government supported irrigation.”

Zimbabwe has experienced droughts after every 10 years since 1982. The cumulative occurrence of these droughts have culminated in the stagnation of livelihoods , which have enormously been agro-based, especially in rural areas.

This year, given the drought cycle, the warning signs are already dire, experts told Business Times this week.

The change in climate conditions has implied that the adverse effects  will increase in both intensity and frequency.

The  unprecedented situation across Zimbabwe, which is located in the subtropics and very vulnerable to climate shocks,  has left experts fearing for the worst.

More than 70% of Zimbabwe’s population  resides in rural areas where  there are dependent on agriculture for their  livelihoods. The looming drought exposes people to food insecurity.

It also comes when the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube  has projected the economy to grow by 5.5% next year, underpinned by higher output in agriculture,  alongside mining and manufacturing.

The underlying assumptions for the projected growth was anchored on normal to  above normal rainfall patterns, according to Ncube.

Ncube projected the agriculture sector to grow by a modest 5.1%  in 2022 , attributable to expected favourable rainfall season and implementation of government support programmes.

Several farmers who spoke to Business Times this week said they are now panicking over the possibility of failing to pay back Command Agriculture loans for the current 2021-2022 farming season due to the unpredictable rainfall patterns.

It comes after the majority of farmers had long term maturity seed varieties for the season which were supposed to be planted from October to the end of November but the rainfall patterns have been unpredictable to date.

The farmers received the long term varieties due to their high yield and disease resistance.

Experts said most farmers will have to switch to medium to short term variety after losing some of the crop to severe moisture stress.

Some farmers who have already planted  crops may have to replant because of the unpredictable rain patterns.

It is also understood some farmers are now selling their seed.

“Some farmers are now selling the seed to those with irrigation because they are of the belief that the government is likely going to write off some of the debt.

“The unpredictable rainfall patterns this year have sent shivers down the spine of most farmers and to date much of the land across the country is yet to be put on crop,” a source, who preferred anonymity  told Business Times.

The unpredictable rainfall patterns, according to analysts,  is going to fuel massive selling of inputs supplied to farmers across the country through the Command Agriculture and the Presidential Input Scheme,  for personal benefit among farmers.

Early this year, Business Times reported that there was a group of farmers and government officials who had been benefitting from command agriculture input and then directed them to the parallel market for a premium.

This group consisted of individuals who were holders of genuine land offer letters from the Ministry of Agriculture and legally registered for the command agriculture scheme.

These individuals have been registering for agriculture support of about 36-40 tonnes of fertilisers for both basal and top dressing.

On the fuel they would get about 1000 litres of diesel.

Those inputs were then sold on the parallel markets on hard cash and the proceeds are channelled towards totally different businesses in Harare.

The same beneficiaries of the inputs will then go and buy maize from other farmers during the harvesting time and deliver to the Grain Marketing Board to clear the debt.

They  will then lease out their land for a further benefit meaning that the command agriculture scheme is now being used as a long hanging capital raising initiative for other businesses.

Last year, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission had to open investigations into how some beneficiaries of the government’s Command Agriculture programme abused the scheme, looting inputs and fuel. The investigations came amid reports that at least US$4bn allocated for the programme cannot be accounted for.

 

 

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