Only 243 ha planted instead of 5000Only a paltry 243 hectares out of the projected 5000 hectares have been planted. Wheat farmers said winter wheat farming was an irrigation intensive crop that required more electricity to power irrigation machines.
The power cuts have adversely affected us. This has compromised our planting and harvesting projections, said Festers Muchirahondo, a wheat farmer in Mutare.
The Manicaland Provincial Agricultural Extension Officer, Godfrey Mamhare, said although he anticipated that the farmers were going to beat the 5000 ha target, it had become difficult because of the incessant power cuts.
Winter wheat entirely depends on irrigation and the on going power outages are unfriendly to winter wheat production. Many of the farmers have stopped venturing into it because of this, he commented.
Both the availability and cost of electricity are of major concern. The cost is a limiting factor and at the end, it will chew the gains leaving the farmers with nothing, added Mamhare.
The President of Commercial Farmers Union, Deron Theron, last week said winter wheat farming was an impending disaster.
The winter wheat production is likely to be disaster owing to lack of assurance from Zesa. Apart from power shortages, lines of credit from banks and shortage of inputs is also going to impact heavily, said Theron.
In response the acting general manager at Zimbabwe Electricity and Transmission Distribution Company, Julian Chinembiri, said: We have had a series of meetings with the farmers and we have resolved that farmers need at least three days a week of power supplies to be able to irrigate.
Post published in: News