BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE
Mashonaland Central province has recorded a 63% increase in small grains production this season, Agritex has said.
The development comes at a time 1 110 hectares of maize were written off in the province translating to a 4% decrease in production, while soyabean production also fell by 23%.
Provincial crops and livestock officer, Stancilious Tapererwa told farmers in Mount Darwin at a field day last week that finger millet production rose by 126% to 2 956 hectares, while pearl millet increased 56% to 3 111 hectares. Sorghum production settled at 52 000 hectares making a 61% production increase.
Groundnuts production shot up to 23 000 hectares from 21 000 hectares the previous season.
“(Some) 1 110 hectares of maize were written off. Farmers lost due to replanting. However, we did not experience any write-off on groundnuts, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and cotton. It shows that these are the crops that are adapted to our weather conditions which should be grown here in Mount Darwin and the whole province,” Tapererwa said.
Host farmer Mark Shayarimo highlighted that groundnuts production had transformed his life since he took it up three years ago.
“We only think of groundnuts now in this area, not any other crop and we want to explore value addition.”
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Team leader for Enterprise, which is promoting groundnuts in 56 rural wards of Mount Darwin, Guruve and Bindura after receiving funding from DFID, Nesbet Tadzoka said their aim was to entrench climate-resilient agriculture practices.
“Enterprise is part of the Livelihoods Food and Security programme me managed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation funded by DFID. We are operating in three provinces, Mash Central, Midlands and Manicaland. Our programme has health components and agriculture extension components. We want smallholder farmers to take farming as a business and we want to turn this area into a groundnuts production belt. We have 200 farmers here in Mount Darwin doing seed multiplication,” Tadzoka sad.
Government and development partners are optimistic production of traditional grains will eradicate hunger and boost food security in the face of climate change.
