Kundai Moyo
The government has intensified climate proof agriculture methods as measures to adapt to climate change impacts amid projections of a below normal to normal rain forecast for the 2023/24 summer farming season.
The Meteorological Services Department has predicted that the country will receive below normal to normal rainfall with Matabeleland North, parts of Midlands and parts of Matabeleland South provinces district being the most affected.
Speaking during a Midlands Provincial field day at Kuguta Farm in Kwekwe recently, former Lands and Agriculture Permanent Secretary, Dr John Bhasera said the ministry was launching adaptation measures meant to augment already existing climate proof methods.
The Second Republic has been revitalizing irrigation schemes, a development that has seen the hectares under irrigation increasing from about 150 000 hectares to the current 204 000.
Government introduced the pfumvudza/intwasa farming method which runs along with the Presidential Input Support Programme that is meant to ensure that farmers produce more from small pieces of land.
Dr Bhasera said the government is launching the Adapt, Mitigate, Act (AMA) scheme to support already existing conservation farming methods.
“We have been advised that rainfall amounts and distributions will be below normal to normal this coming season and as government we have to take measures that help us adapt to climate change. We will be launching the AMA programme as a measure to protect against effects of climate change,” he said.
Although the AMA project will be spread across many sectors of the agriculture economy, Dr Bhasera said there was need to protect and preserve the nation’s cattle herd from vagaries of climate change.
“We are introducing the urea treatment project. Farmers are urged to bail their grass so that they can feed their livestock. We have set aside 5000 metric tonnes of urea for that urea treatment. We call it ‘own farm survival’ where every farmer needs to preserve their herd and climate proof the national herd,” he said.
Kuguta Farm, owned by former Chief Secretary in the office of the President, Dr Misheck Sibanda, put 150 hectares under wheat and is expecting an average of 6 tons per hectare.
The farm is also thriving in livestock, soya beans, potatoes and fish farming among other projects.
State of the art mechanization equipment including a drone to counter the menacing quelea birds has also come in hand to ensure the farm maximizes yields.
Dr Bhasera said Dr Sibanda was leading from the front in farming, which is a major accelerator towards achieving vision 2030.
