Melisa Chatikobo
FARMERS are concerned that they will lose more of their crops as a result of the incessant rains which have been pounding most parts of the country since last weekend.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, the president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU), Shadreck Makombe, said if the rains continued, they would cause massive losses to many farmers.
On its part, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) said the current light rains were set to continue well into this coming weekend.
“The incessant rains may affect crops that are still in the fields negatively if they rains continue. Maize is at risk of rotting and beans and other legumes are also being affected by these rains because they were flowering.
“Most of the crops are going to get bad because they will retain this moisture content for some time. As a country, we do not have enough driers.
“That is why it takes time for us to plant other crops whilst others are still in the field,” Makombe told the Daily News yesterday.
“Driers are coming into the country, but … they are few because they are mainly found at the Grain Marketing Board and at a few private players.
“As such, we definitely need a lot of driers and they should be accessible to small scale farmers. Technologically, we are still far behind,” he added.
Makombe also said late planted crops looked doomed.
“In terms of harvests, when we are looking at the cereals such as maize and small grains, most have been affected by dry spells and they had wilted and dried. These rains cannot resuscitate them.
“As for the late planted crops, these may also not be able to be resuscitated,” he said further.
Meanwhile, the MSD said yesterday that the current rains were expected to continue up to the end of the week.
“Moisture from the west and that from the south-east resulted in cloudy conditions and rain-showers over much of the country except the north-eastern parts, namely Harare Metropolitan, Mashonaland East and Central.
“The highest rainfall amounts were in Victoria Falls and Zaka, both measuring 62mm by this morning, while Chipinge, Bulawayo and Chisengu had 55mm, 35mm and 34mm respectively,” the MSD said.