eBusiness Weekly
Targeting high potential farmers .Move to boost yields
Martin Kadzere
The Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union has launched a commercial unit that provides conservation tillage services to small holder farmers, which helps preserve and boost yields. It is a marked departure from the traditional mandate of the union —largely policy advocacy-to programmes meant to improve farmers’ productivity and competitiveness.
“The main issue is that the yields are not going up due to delays in planting,” Berean Mukwende, first vice president of the ZFU told Business Weekly on Tuesday.
“Most of our small holder farmers do not have drought power . . . year in year out, yields are declining because of late planting and this is the gap we are trying to narrow.”
He said the tillage system known as “zero till” or “low till” farming was the most appropriate as it helps to conserve moisture at a time of unpredictable rains associated with climate change.
“As the union, we found that we were concentrating on policy work, but we now want to help farmers. We would want to deploy modern technology to help farmers boost their yields. If they can double or treble production, our farmers will be highly competitive and able to export their produce,” Mukwende said.
The roll out of the programme would begin in parts of Mashonaland East and the Lowveld.
High potential areas
The ZFU is targeting “high potential areas” but has been overwhelmed by huge demand for the service from farmers. The Zimbabwean small-scale farmers use fewer machines largely because their hectarage is too small to warrant huge investment.
“We feel it’s an area, which even the private sector can tap into,” said Mukwende.
The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, which is administering the Government cotton farming scheme this year, started providing tillage services to farmers to boost harvests.
The company has already deployed tractors and tilling equipment such as planters and rippers in areas where it has contracted farmers and is targeting to plough 50 000 ha.
“It is a programme that will definitely help our farmers to plant on time and ensure there is improvement in yields,” Marjorie Chaniwa, Cottco head of operations said.
Analysts said adopting new farming techniquess would help farmers boost their harvests.
“Most of our small holder farmers lack capital to invest in modern machinery. What the ZFU has done is commendable and I think it is an initiative which can also be adopted by the private sector or even government departments which can then acquire equipment and offer services to farmers at an affordable costs,” said.
