HARARE - A local non-governmental organisation, Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe, has called on other relief agencies to provide crop inputs. FTCZ Programmes Officer, Ryan Ndadzungira said: Input packs given to communal farmers are not enough to produce adequate food to take them to next harvest. We urge the relief agencies to ensure the packs they are giving out are adequate to satisfy the nutritional needs of beneficiaries. Ndadzungira told The Zimbabwean that most agencies were distributing 10 to 15 kg of seed maize which is only sufficient for one acre.
With a national average yield of 0.8 tonnes per hectare, the pack was not sufficient to produce adequate food for a family of six, said the Programmes Officer. Instead, Ndadzungira said an ideal input pack should comprise of at least 25kg of maize or cereal seed, 10 kg sugar bean to provide protein in diet as well as small livestock. Ndadzungira said the inputs must be sufficient to boost the food security.