No sign of planting, as rainy season arrives (30-11-06)

t planting, most of them ignored the notice and were still pressing government to carry out further laboratory tests on the Compound D fertilizer recently imported from South Africa, which has turned out to be fake.
The government has been upbeat about the resettlement programme, calling it a success of unparalleled proportions. But evidence on the ground suggests otherwise. The Zimbabwean last weekend visited Mashonaland West, the country’s prime farming area where in normal years the early-irrigated maize crop is knee-high and the dryland crop would be at germination stage.
But there is no such evidence this year. Weather experts have indicated that the El-Nino threat and the continuing rainfall deficit this season are getting stronger but there does not appear to be a plan by the government to mitigate the effects of the drought by putting a large maize crop under irrigation. Such a crop should mature with or without good rains. Crop experts this week said the absence of a large irrigated crop was telling insofar as it revealed the government’s lack of planning.
“It does not make sense for the government to give farmers in dry areas bags of seed and fertiliser when there is a real threat of a drought,” said an agronomist with a seed company. “The government should instead have moved in around September to ensure that a large maize crop was planted under irrigation. There has been talk of a large maize crop to be harvested in February and then dried in kilns but where is the action?” he asked.
Principal meteorologist Hector Chikowore told The Zimbabwean that there would be less rain in most parts of the region between October and December but the situation would improve during the second phase of the season.
Areas which normally produce an early maize crop such as Makonde, Mazowe Valley and Enterprise do not have any crop in the ground as this has either been looted or removed by farmers for safe keeping. The area between Mapinga and Chinhoyi along the Chirundu highway does not have any meaningful maize crop as vast stretches of land are either overgrown with weeds or have been ploughed but not planted.
There is growing concern that food imports by both the government and aid agencies are falling far short of the amount required to feed people until March.
“We are approaching the very worst period of the crisis, when 3,3 million Zimbabweans will need food aid and yet WFP does not even have the resources to meet our target of three million beneficiaries in December. It is an extremely serious situation and it is only going to get worse,” said a WFP representative in Zimbabwe.