By Tavita Natasha Mpala
The Agritex Provincial Officer Masvingo Province Caristo Masiiwa has said that the new farming season has started as seen in some places in the province that are already receiving rains that will help farmers boost productivity.
“With the moisture found in the soil at that time, we encourage farmers to grow sweet potato, which is a plant that does not bother us much because it does not need a lot of manure, but it is a plant that helps us a lot in the food security of the family, the family gets food or money.”
“We can also plant seeds like millet with such moisture that it will be easy for the seeds to grow and we can prepare for our season. They are sweet potatoes, rapoko sorghum, and millet.”
He added on to encourage farmers, to check on the corn crops as much as possible.
” I recommend that we check our corn crops as much as possible. Checking and checking whether the corn-biting worm has not entered our crops, we should look carefully for that worm to avoid being bitten. Let’s spray our fields. I want to encourage all farmers to go and farm, this is the perfect time. “
He spoke about Sweet Potatoes being generally an easy crop to farm due to their low capital intensity and applicability on small tracts of land.
” I want to talk to the farmers about this year’s theme, that says food self-sufficiency at the household level at all costs. We’ve had disturbances with the rain stopping during the season and farmers are having second thoughts but the season is still going on, the rains are back now and regular so we have to go into our fields looking for insects and pests like the fore armyworm to see if this pest has not entered our fields so that agronomists and extension officers can help the farmers to find the right medicine or pesticides to kill that worm. It’s time again for the cotton farmers”
Effects of climate change, where rainfall patterns have become irregular and continue to shift, have not made their life any easier. The Department of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, in Masvingo continues to encourage farmers to continue fighting weeds, as this is also time to remove weed and wait for the seeds to grow well.