Hazel Marimbiza

THE department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) is aiming at pushing farmers to concentrate more on growing small grains than maize in the Matabeleland region to circumvent climate change effects.

This comes after the department expressed concern over the low uptake of small grains in Matabeleland as farmers still prefer growing maize though the crop has largely been failing due to climate change.

Agritex Matabeleland North provincial officer Dumisani Nyoni told Daily News in an interview yesterday that in Matabeleland region; about 80 percent of farmed areas this season were under maize crop.

“Areas such as Mangwe, Tsholotsho, Hwange and Binga are the ones embracing small grains but still they are being grown at around 45-60 percent. We need to see more farmers in the district growing more of small grains. We are pushing for a shift and we hope to achieve about 75 percent of small grains being grown in the area,” Nyoni said.

“We appeal to Matabeleland farmers to ensure that the larger area of their crops is filled with sorghum, pearl millet and rapoko and less of maize because increasingly as we grow maize we are experiencing more crop failure”.

He also urged the government to assist farmers with supporting mechanisms which will motivate farmers to adopt small grains.

“Farmers need availability of good quality seed and they also need support in terms of management of quelea bird populations which eat the grains.

“The government also has to support farmers with improved mechanisation for processing traditional grains. They need small scale mechanisation and handy equipment for threshing and processing of small grains at household level.

“We also need to address food preference issues. While farmers are being encouraged to grow small grains they are still used to growing and consuming maize so the government will have to address this issue of food preferences”.